Paul Sharits (1943-1993)

25 November 1974

Dear Paul,

                  Thanks for your help re tapes. In the meantime Seth Feldman had written me about job possibilities at McGill, so I took advantage of that opportunity to bug him, too, about the tapes at the Media centre. So, I now, at least, have a list of the tapes--it remains to see what I'll have to go through to get them.
                  As for the co-ops question. My feeling is pretty much what it was last Spring when you were here. That is to say, I like Dimitri and Claude at the Mtl. co-op, and because I'm right here in the same city with them, I can help them out occasionally, and they help me. BUT I do not understand why they are so slow in paying filmmakers the rentals due them. They claim perhaps rightly so, that they should be getting more assistance from the Canada Council. (The Toronto co-op does get xxxx larger grants than the Mtl. co-op. I don't know why.) I think they-- Calude andDimitri, that is--spend too much time and money on their 16mm film festival, and on keeping up European connections-- to the detriment of Canadian and American filmmakers. XXX Their hearts are in the right place, I think, but I'm afraid a combination of Greek and French Canadian personalities zzzzz doesn t produce the most orderly of organizations. Partially because of distance, no doubt, my feelings about the Toronto co-op are cooler. Unlike the Mtl. co-op, the people running the Toronto co-op constantly change. They seem, on the whole, just as disorganized, if not more so, than the Mtl. co-op--without the saving grace of being Greek or French Canadian. They sound like better "buisnessmen," and they...