 WL Profiles
HAPPY 40TH AFI!
Celebrating its 40th anniversary in Los Angeles at the packed ArcLight theater complex, the American Film Institute screened ten classic fi lms simultaneously. An extraordinary bonus was the in-person introduction by each fi lm’s star or director: on hand were Julie Andrews, Warren Beatty, Kirk Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, George Lucas, and more. The event, planned by new AFI chief, Bob Gazzale and funded by Target, sold out its 4,000 seats in 36 hours. No other organization in the world could have pulled it off. A reception for stars and trustees followed at Eat on Sunset, and a lunch at the Beverly Wilshire attended by Warren Beatty; Kirk Douglas – in extraordinary form; Sir Howard Stringer of Sony, who is the AFI chairman; and numerous other Hollywood power brokers closed the festivities. In 1967, the National Council of the Arts, concluding that film is an important American art form, provided a directive to establish the AFI. At the time, countless classic American fi lms on nitrate fi lm stock were rotting in studio vaults, and serious fi lm students and scholars had limited choices when looking for an institutional advocate. Few fought harder than AFI’s founding
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George Lucas, Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas, Rob Reiner, Angela Lansbury, Billy Crystal,
Jack Nicholson, and Warren Beatty all have films honored at the AFI’s 40 year celebration.
director, George Stevens, Jr., and
his successor, the formidable Jean
Picker Firstenberg, to preserve
fi lm’s role as a major component of
American cultural identity. In the
last 40 years, the AFI has become a
major center of fi lm preservation,
education (the Conservatory, and
the AFI Directing Workshop for
Women), and presentation. In 1995,
the AFI became a non-profi t with
no further governmental assistance. Its
headquarters are in Los Angeles; and
its Washington, D.C., area post, the
state-of-the-art AFI Silver Theatre
and Cultural Center.
The AFI’s Washington presence
has been unique. As government arts
subsidies dwindled, visibility in the
capital became critical for the AFI. For
years, its offi ces in the Kennedy Center
functioned as a kind of nerve center
for actors and directors on missions
to raise awareness for organizations
in Washington – and to promote
their latest fi lms or testify on the Hill.
Evenings were built around stars and
directors to highlight their work, and
of course, the AFI; and attended by an
infl uential mix from Capitol Hill, the
White House, the diplomatic corps,
and the press. It was the fl owering of
“Pollywood” when the two scenes
mixed in a serious way.
– Mark Ginsburg |
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