news: The Moscow Film Museum

Open Letter:
About the Fate of the Museum of Cinema

To
The President of the RF, V.V. Putin
The Chairman of the Government, M.E. Fradkov
The Mayor of Moscow , Yu. M. Luzhkov

We turn to you in the hope that your intervention will make it possible to resolve a burning issue in our national cultural life: The State Central Museum of Cinema is at present under the threat of liquidation.

The dispute about the premises in the building of the Kino-Centre, constructed first of all to provide accommodation for the Museum of Cinema, was not resolved in favour of this cultural object; instead, the building was privatized by commercial structures. The obligations of the management of the Filmmakers' Union of the Russian Federation regarding the preservation of the museum were not observed. The Museum of Cinema could cease to exist as a unique cultural and educational complex, which unites showrooms, a huge collection of materials on film history and on the history of the country, and which screens both national and international film classics. The dispersion of the museum's funds, and even a temporary suspension of its activity, is fraught with irreplaceable losses for domestic culture. Moving the museum to a suburb of Moscow will make it less accessible to visitors.

A Museum of Cinema as a unified centre of film art is a sight in all main European cities; suffice it to mention the legendary Parisian Museum of Cinema or the huge film-museum in the centre of Berlin. We are proud that, during its fifteen years of the existence, our Museum of Cinema has won the recognition of the world film-public and is respected no less than its western counterparts. Our foreign colleagues, through the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), have already expressed bewilderment at the prospect of liquidation of one of the most famous cultural and educational centres in Russia .

We consider it our professional and human duty to draw your attention to this serious problem, and we ask you kindly to take the necessary steps to preserve the State Museum of Cinema.

On behalf of the Section of Film Historians and Film Critics of the Filmmakers' Union of the RF

V.E. Matizen
Film Critic and Chairman of the Section of Film Historians and Film Critics
of the Filmmakers' Union of the RF

N. I. Noussinova
Doctor of Arts, Chairperson of the Museum Commission of the Section of Film Historians and Film Critics of the Filmmakers' Union of the RF

April 6, 2005

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