Michael Govan, Save Film at LACMA agree on date for 'popcorn summit'

With the international cinephile community bearing down on LACMA -- read the open letter from Martin Scorsese -- the museum's director, Michael Govan, has agreed to meet with the members of Save Film at LACMA, a group of local movie lovers who have mounted a campaign to reverse the museum's decision to ax the 40-year-old weekend film program.

Now a date for the "popcorn summit" has been announced: Sept. 1.

A spokeswoman at LACMA confirmed the date and said that so far, only Govan and members of Save Film at LACMA will attend the meeting, which will be held at the museum.

There's no word on the precise agenda for the conference other than the fact that Save Film at LACMA will formally ask Govan to reinstate the program that is scheduled to end after the Alain Resnais retrospective, scheduled for Oct. 2-17. The group announced on Twitter today that it is inviting suggestions and questions from the general movie-loving public.

Meanwhile, Govan told The Times last week that donors have begun stepping forward to help save the museum's film program, but he declined to provide names or figures.

-- David Ng

Photo: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus. Credit: Mel Melcon  / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Maria G.]

its about time hollywood got involved in preserving this program.

on another note, i LOVE the website redesign

[Joseph McBride]

The momentum is growing to show LACMA that film lovers throughout the world and some of our most important filmmakers are outraged that the museum's film program is being canceled. Now is the time for LACMA to gracefully return to its senses and reinstate the program. Not to do so would take this beyond an embarrassment into a permanent self-inflicted wound by a museum that would lose much of its credibility as a leading cultural force
in Los Angeles.