I think that Darryl Wiggers and Leo Enticknap have presented quite intelligent responses to the exaggerated claims of the death of "film". (And I know this will be the second time in a week I've cited one of my own articles on the list, but I do so in hopes that people will suggest other previously published commentaries on this topic.) In "Present Personal Truths: The Alternative Phenomenology of Video in 'I've Heard the Mermaids Singing'," (Wide Angle, Vol. 15, #3, July 1993), I concluded with these remarks: Cinema remains intact, as it will remain after the electronic technologies of video have been replaced by more sophisticated visual devices. Film itself may even become antiquated in this next century, but cinema-- that is, the social and personal practice of watching images on a screen-- will still influence human experience a thousand years from now, just as paintings have merely moved from stone walls to canvas in the past ten thousand years.... As video eventually fades into nostalgia and is replaced by new technology, other media arts will also join the evolution of cinema history, and new theories on production and reception will emerge that will again change our perception of what we know as cinema. So having moved through film stocks to electronic tape to digital code to whatever is next, I am confident that we will always find value in the group theater and home screen experience of motion pictures. If anything, the personal cinema experience is what will change most, as we find more ways to integrate more viewing screens into our daily lives. When the day comes that we can "load" media directly into our brains without the medium of a screen-- and that day will come-- then that MAY change the social experience of movies, but perhaps not even then. I'd write more, but it's a Friday night and I'm going out to see a movie. Dr. Timothy Shary Assistant Professor of Screen Studies Traina Center for the Arts Clark University Worcester, MA 01610 508-793-7285 ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html