LOS ANGELES VALLEY COLLEGE THROWS AWAY THIRTY YEARS OF FILM HISTORY! 

FORMER FILM STUDENTS RESCUE FILM NEGATIVES FROM DUMPSTER, HOPE TO RETURN FILMS TO ORIGINAL FILMMAKERS!
 

We made nearly all of our student films together and won consecutive 16mm Synch Sound Film Awards: Will in 1987 and I in 1988. 

Together with our classmates, we had many interesting and, at times, outrageous experiences that inspired us to write Film School.

Standing outside the old cinema arts building, we noticed that not much had changed in the past 21 years since we’d first met in a film class in 1986.  As if on cue, a minivan pulled up, and a voice inside asked, “Can I help you?”  That voice turned out to be one of our two former film professors, Prof. Joseph A. Daccurso.  When we reminded him that we were once his students, his eyes lit up with vague remembrance, and he smiled.  We proceeded to tell him about our screenplay and of our hopes to shoot our film on the LAVC campus.  He offered to open the studio for us so that we might look around and reminisce.
 

2007 The same wooden desks.

2007 Film editing equipment.

LEFT 1987 Will on the crane.  RIGHT 2007 crane is stored in the corner of the studio

LEFT 1987 Erik starts to paint the floor.  RIGHT 2007 Erik is amazed it's still there.

I took the opportunity to ask Prof. Daccurso if I could borrow the negatives of my student films.  I wanted to have new video transfers made.  Imagine my surprise when he told me that my negative, along with all the other films made on the LAVC campus during the past 30 years, had been tagged to be disposed of.  I always thought the negative of my modest beginning as a filmmaker would be safe at Valley College. Clearly, I was wrong.  He offered us an opportunity to look for our films and save them.  But that wasn’t good enough.  I thought, How would I feel if I found out that my film negative had been thrown away!  Imagine if the earliest films of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and others like them had been trashed.  We knew we had to save all the negatives that had been tagged for the dumpster.  I vowed then and there that I would try to find as many of the filmmakers as possible and return their films to them.

I still find it hard to believe that they were going to throw away my films.

Below is a list of LAVC student filmmakers and the names of their student films.  If you are on the list or know how I can find any of them, please e-mail me at savethefilms@filmsinfocus.com 
I have already received some support. Foto-Kem has kindly donated film boxes to protect the negatives and Magic Filmworks has generously offered to Telecine all the films to digi-beta videotape.  Much remains to be done to preserve the proud history of the Los Angeles Valley College Cinema Arts program.  If you can help in any way toward the storage, preservation, and/or restoration of these priceless student films, please contact me at the above e-mail address.  Thanks in advance for all your support, and let’s Save the Films!

Sincerely,

Erik C. Andersen

READ MORE
 

E-MAIL ME AT  savethefilms@filmsinfocus.com IF YOU THINK I HAVE YOUR FILM

 

 

Erik returns Kevin Jones' 1984 PSA "Motor Home Safety". Kevin still owns the motor home that he used in the film.

Here is Sheryl Harris 1989 film "Teen Line"

2-11-09

Robert Wilkman e-mailed me this information on Craig Littell. This is why I feel the need to save the LAVC films and post them on youtube. That way Craig and his film "Last Gasp Ranger" will not be forgotten.


Animator and former Executive Board member CRAIG LITTELL-HERRICK died on October 10, 2002. Since 1977 he worked for Bosustow, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Disney, Cornell/Abood, Baer Animation, Calvert-Cobbler, Kroyer, Filmfair, Cool Productions and Warner Bros. He served as a Local 839 Executive Board member from 1992 until 2001, and as a delegate to several IATSE conventions.

I will remember Craig as someone who combined the quirky disposition of an eccentric and talented artist with a fierce sense of unionism.

For years, his wild collage ads for the annual holiday party took inspiration from the B-movie career of our long-time hostess Beverly Garland. Those less familiar with Craig's sense of humor will probably miss the rich irony that he died just as we decided to stop having our parties at the Holiday Inn. We will never know what he could have done with old photos of bowling balls and ice skates ...

                                                                                                           -- Jeff Massie
 

4-19-08

Today Will and I helped celebrate Milt Timmons 75th Birthday. It's been 20 years since we last saw him. I hope to post some video soon.

Milt Timmons Reports Successful Mid-City Party Milt Timmons’ pot-luck supper and 75th birthday party was attended by about 30 people on Saturday, April 19th. The Recreation Room of Andrea Winkler’s condominium near CBS Television City was festively decorated with purple crepe paper bunting, a giant birthday banner, balloons and candles of various colors. The covered ping-pong table served admirably as a buffet for the sumptuous spread of meats, salads, breads, casseroles and sweets. In one corner Milt had set up a table to display all the books he has written, while in another corner a video setup continuously played movies that Milt had directed and/or produced over the years. The books and movies stimulated many lively conversations. Three of Milt’s former film students from LA Valley College were among the guests, and the highlight of the afternoon and evening occurred when two of these students showed up with a TV cameraman. Erik C. Andersen, one of the students, has become the very successful editor, and he has undertaken a labor of love in which he plans to restore to pristine condition all the student films that were produced at Valley College over the last forty years or so. Then he plans to post an archive of these films on YouTube. Since Milt was the producer of most of these films, Erik took this opportunity to interview Milt on camera, and to document some of the fascinating conversations that are always a hallmark of any Mensa party.

4-17-08

Here is a fun e-mail I got from a past student.

"I went through the film program and survived Joe Daccurso's classes. At the time Francis Ford Coppolas's film "Bram Stoker's Dracula" was in the theatres with a tag line "Love Never Dies". We (my fellow students and I) came up with "Bram Stoker's Draccurso" with a new tag line "Class Never Ends"."     Wim den Boer
 

2-6-08  I got an e-mail today from Joel Nassan (see below). Everyone should check out his documentary "SOLD". Joel, thank you for your kind words. They are inspiring.

Hey Erik,
I stumbled across your website and I read about what you did with all the old films at LAVC and I was really inspired that there are people like you who care enough to put effort in saving precious archives. Thanks for your work!
 
Joel Nassan
Director / Co-Founder - theSOLDproject
www.thesoldproject.org

2-5-08  Magic Film & Video Works has transferred over 30 LAVC films to tape. Alphadogs has donated time in an Avid bay for me to start digitizing the transferred films.  In the next few months I hope to start uploading them onto youtube.com.

8-13-07  YourLA on channel 4 in Los Angeles aired my "Save The Films" video today. You can view it at the top of the page or at the following link "YOURLA"

8-03-07 "Save The Films" was in The Daily News today. The article was called DRAMATIC RESCUE - College films saved by former student. Thanks to Susan Abram interest in my endeavor I found 3 past LAVC film students. Click on the www.dailynews.com link to read the article.

MAGIC FILM WORKS
ALPHADOGS
FOTOKEM
CHRISTY'S EDITORIAL FILM SUPPLY
SHAPESHIFTER



THANK YOU
SUSAN ABRAM
RUSSO ANASTASIO
KEVIN BURKE
DAVID BERLINSKY
BRIAN KIBBIE
ERIC KURLAND
BRIAN LEON

ABOUT ERIK C. ANDERSEN

William Falconer rips off the "Dispose of" note.

Masters degree at the same ceremony at which Bill Cosby’s wife Camille was awarded her Ph.D.  Will has been teaching English and Film for 15 years and is currently English Department Chairperson at Hueneme High School in Oxnard, California.

Will just completed his first novel, Voyage to the Planet of the Giant Bugs, a science fiction adventure for young readers, and has written several screenplays including Flower Girl, The Close Shave, Indecent Assault, American Waste, and Father’s Day.  Film School, a screenplay Will co-wrote with Erik C. Andersen, was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2005 San Fernando Valley International Film Festival.  Although they did not win an award, Will got to meet Academy Award-winner Shirley Jones, which was even better.

Will’s current works-in progress are the screenplays The Custodian, Old Folks’ Home, and Joe and Jerry’s Double Date.  He is still planning on writing the Great American Novel or, if that’s not in the cards, at least the Great American Screenplay.  Will is an avid film buff whose tastes range from studio blockbusters to independent art films, from Hollywood classics to grade-Z exploitation films, and almost everything in between.  He estimates he’s seen around 4000 movies, but he’s trying to cut down with the help of his lovely wife and two charming and adorable children.