My skepticism about vo-tech film training is not a concern for "film studies" w
hich the litterateurs among us will keep flourishing.
Rather it is a concern about whether the United States needs yet another conser
vatory to supply the "film industry." If there is a need for such a facility,
perhaps the industry could (should) support it. Every once in a while, I fanta
size about how well AFI and UCLA could be supported with, say, one-tenth of one
percent of annual film grosses. The phenomenally successful films would not m
iss it while the amount would not make any difference to recoupment for the les
s successful films.
It is more than a little ironic that Howard Suber who is leading the charge w
as trained and built his reputation in academe as a critic-historian.
As they say -- That's Show Business.