Film is Dead. Long Live Film!

I know several of the people who are interviewed in this movie. So. Do I speak honestly about this movie and risk their wrath?

Fortunately for that question, this movie offers an admiring view of these people, dedicated to a dying medium and clear-eyed enough to recognize that death, even as they struggle to maintain their films and equipment. These are the people who save and repair and restore and make available stuff the studios can't be bothered to, and that the archives don't have the funds to. They do it for the benefit of people like me, who enjoy the fruits of their labors, and, of course, for the surprisingly large number of people who seem to think their entitled to the results without so much as a thank you. But mostly because, in the end, they can do no other. The reasons we offer to justify our acts are often as not high-minded excuses for what we do for reasons we often do not understand ourselves.

And that's ok. Certainly, I enjoy what they have made possible. They're entitled to some egoboo, a round of applause. Which, as the film makers indicate, they don't often get.