Manohla Dargis, Scott Foundas, and the Rest of Your Favorite Writers Are Fighting Right Now

Dear Anne,

Thanks so much for the well-wishing. It just means so much to me.

And thanks for checking in to see if your characterization of my time at Lincoln Center seemed accurate. I guess I must have missed that call.

i was probably signing another pro-child rape petition, which takes up most of my time these days.

Awesome callback! Taubin then joined the pile-on:

Anne: As you often say, you are not a critic, although that hasn't stopped you from trashing some very innovative AmerIndies. And as your inaccurate comments about Kent Jones, Gavin Smith, Manohla Dargis and little old me (a literal description) over the past several months suggest, you aren't much of a reporter either. Scott Foundas is an immensely promising programmer but Kent Jones has qualities that are irreplaceable and his former colleagues at the Film Society know what they've lost. As for Kent "not meshing," it's your situation at Indiewire that you describe. yrs., amy taubin

And finally, Foundas responded:

Given how quickly this comments section devolved into a backbiting cesspool, I had hoped to avoid entering into the fray. I do so now only to clarify a couple of key points: One, despite Anne Thompson's claim to have spoken to me "at length," that conversation consisted almost exclusively of Ms. Thompson attempting to confirm rumors about my contention for various jobs and to extract other confidential information, all of which I refused to comment upon. Two, while the reading comprehension skills of several posters here seem cause for concern, I take particular exception to Brynne Damon's intimation that, in my recent Indiewire interview, I cited an interview I had conducted with Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux as evidence of my "programming experience." Rather, as the Indiewire interview makes perfectly clear, I referred to my conversation with Fremaux as an example of a programming philosophy--that, whereas a critic writes from the perspective of personal taste, a programmer must take into consideration the broader interests of an audience and a programming institution. For evidence of my own programming activities, in addition to the New York Film Festival there is the long-running Films That Got Away series in Los Angeles, and multiple programs I have coordinated with the Telluride Film Festival (including a highly successful retrospective of French filmmaker Eugène Green) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. On the other hand, if we are to discuss "on the job" learning (to borrow another of Ms. Damon's choice phrases), I had never edited the film section of a newspaper before when I came on board at the LA Weekly and...well, at the risk of sounding immodest, I'll just let that speak for itself.

Of course, nothing can speak for itself on the internet, and once you join the fray, you can't get out. Foundas was immediately provoked by the next commenter: "Well, Scott, considering that you helped block A Serious Man from the NYFF, a now legendary rejection, I'd say it's not on the job training you require so much as a developed sense of taste." To which Foundas replied:

And Sundance rejected One False Move and The Daytrippers and Spellbound, and Cannes rejected Brokeback Mountain and Vera Drake and Lebanon, and the first performance of The Rite of Spring caused a riot and...well, to quote the immortal Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot, "Nobody's perfect!"

Except for that entire comments section, maybe. A-plus work, everyone!

Scott Foundas Joins Film Society as Associate Programmer [Thompson on Hollywood]

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