Dear Red Shoes,
I first saw the Spirit of St. Louis while it was on tour outside of my town. When I first saw it, I felt a stirring in my body that Ive never felt before. The long, supple wings, soft aluminum frame, and the sure endurance of it does...things... to me...
And when I saw the command module of Apollo 11, I just knew that I needed to rub every part of me all over it.
Some of the biggest names in documentary filmmaking have denounced a recent agreement between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks Inc. that they say restricts makers of films and television shows using Smithsonian materials from offering their work to public television or other non-Showtime broadcast outlets. [...]
On March 9, Showtime and the Smithsonian announced the creation of Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture to develop television programming. Under the agreement, the joint venture has the right of first refusal to commercial documentaries that rely heavily on Smithsonian collections or staff. Those works would first have to be offered to Smithsonian on Demand, the cable channel that is expected to be the venture's first programming service.
How can I full my fantasy of telling a cabdriver my inner fantasy of videotaping Amelia Earhart screwing Jonas Salk on Archie Bunkers chair? Tell me, Red Shoes, how?
As I read the article, it appears that the Smithsonian/Showtime (Smithsotime?) partnership will be getting right-of-first-refusal on projects primarily using Smithsonian resources.
That doesn't appear to mean a project *can't* be shown on PBS, just that Smithsotime gets the first shot at it.
More than likely a notional documentary would run first on Smithsotime and then run 1-2 years later on other networks.
Christopher
Portland, OR
November 2002
APR 01, 2006 02:34 PM