Help us create an astounding documentary revealing the men behind two legendary careers: Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton.
Short
Summary
Milestone Films and Ross Lipman have reunited to create NOTFILM, a feature length documentary essay on the making of Samuel Beckett's only motion picture film.
While working on the restoration of FILM by Samuel Beckett - a remarkable oddity in cinema history, starring the great Buster Keaton - archivist Ross Lipman was visiting Grove Press publishing giant Barney Rosset. In Rosset's walk up apartment on 4th Avenue, literally under the kitchen sink, he found reels of film and audio that had been sitting there for decades, including items considered lost for decades. What Lipman uncovered will change the way we perceive this 1965 masterpiece and what we know of the extremely reclusive, brilliant Nobel laureate who authored the 20th century touchstone WAITING FOR GODOT.
Keaton, Beckett, and Rosset were in fact just three of an all-star production crew which also included Academy Award-winning cinematographer Boris Kaufman (brother of Dziga Vertov), director Alan Schneider, actor James Karen, and editor Sidney Meyers. It was Beckett's lone trip to America, and NOTFILM tells the story of this masterpiece's making, using never-before-seen camera tests, the famous long-lost missing scene's outtakes and unreleased audio recordings of production meetings (including Beckett) alongside other rare
archival elements.
NOTFILM will be a dynamic cinematic artwork that evolves around some of the greatest characters in 20th century culture.
Who We Are
Milestone Film & Video was started in 1990 by Amy Heller and Dennis Doros to bring out films we love; specifically restored classic films. UCLA Film & Television Archive restorationist and filmmaker Ross Lipman has been instrumental in restoring such Milestone’s releases as Charles Burnett’s KILLER OF SHEEP, Kent Mackenzie’s THE EXILES, Shirley Clarke’s THE CONNECTION along with other great films.
What
We Need & What You Get
Milestone and Lipman will need $95,000 to
finish this feature length documentary, approximately half of the total budget. Restoration of the outtakes and audio,
acquiring clips, and professional post-production are needed. Most excitingly,
Milestone and Lipman will commission and record a brand-new score for NOTFILM by
the composer Mihaly Vig (best known internationally for his extraordinary scores for the films of Bela Tarr). There will be incredible perks if you support our project
including signed archival pigment prints, signed books, CDs and DVDs, and of course, the finished
project with all the bonus features which will include an alternate version of
FILM with the legendary and previously lost-until-now missing first scene! If we exceed the amount needed, we will be using the money to add even more bonus features to the DVD and BluRay release!
The
Impact
The release of NOTFILM along with the restored
FILM will be a significant contribution to cinema and theater culture. It will open in
theaters around the world and will be reviewed by the major critics. Most
importantly, it will reveal the unknown mysteries behind the collaboration of
such diverse contributors as Beckett, Keaton, Schneider, Kaufman and Rosset to
one of cinema’s most enigmatic films.
Milestone has already made history with the
first crowdsourced film restoration, that of Shirley Clarke’s PORTRAIT OF JASON.
It opened at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2013, premiered
in the U.S. at New York’s IFC Cinema to rave reviews, and has already traveled
around the world many times over. We
know that the reception to NOTFILM and FILM will be just as exciting!
Other
Ways You Can Help
So
we hope that you will contribute. We were so touched by all our friends and
complete strangers who came to our aid with PORTRAIT OF JASON. We are thrilled
to be working with Ross Lipman and know that NOTFILM will reward you many times
over with a thought-provoking documentary that will change how you look at
cinema. If you can’t financially help, please share on all your social media
and tell your friends about us. We’ll
see you in the cinema!
