AFI, serving the cineastes of the world
It was launched in the Rose Garden by President Lyndon B. Johnson to advance and preserve the art of the moving image. For decades, the American Film Institute thrived doing just that. Now, like almost every other nonprofit organization knocked sideways by the recession, AFI finds itself having to script its own comeback story.
Much of AFI’s campus near Griffith Park has neither air conditioning nor heating. AFI’s last televised Top 100 show lost more than $1 million, and the cable ratings for its Life Achievement Award are plunging. An ambitious, encyclopedic AFI directory of American movies still has four decades of films to catalog, and government support for the project has dried up.
If any organization needs to unwind in a movie theater for an hour or two, it’s AFI — and from Friday through Nov. 7, the institute can do just that with its annual AFI Fest, primarily playing at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and Mann Chinese 6 theaters in Hollywood.
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Daron Jenkins Has Written 956 Articles For Us!
Currently running one of NYC's largest Media Entrepreneur networks and event platforms as well as producing feature films.
