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I appreciate the “we don’t need no stinkin’ Criterion; make your own canon!” tweets today, but I wonder if y’all understand how difficult it is for, say, adjunct film instructors w/ no funding & few resources to give students access to titles that don’t get proper releases?
My college library has been fab in getting obscure titles I request to screen for classes, but it’s much easier if there’s already a Criterion (or Kino) to ask for. I can’t very well require already underserved students to go dig in the corners of the internets on their own.
And for better or worse, I am often the only point of contact with film studies most of my community college students have, and it’d be cool if I could more easily introduce them directors who aren’t white men.
I am happy to do the unpaid labor it takes to find & provide titles for my students (& I’ve spent quite a bit of my own money on movies for classes), but I often dream of how great it could be if there were easily accessed collections out there. My efforts are so often inadequate
