Don Quijote

[Glenn Anders]

That's my line, but you're right!

Glenn

[Clive Dale]

Glenn,

Why do you think so much more attention has been paid to completing TSOTW than Don Q?

All the work prints from TOSOTW are carefully stored awaiting completion.
Plus you have to pay protection money to B and lots to Oja.

While Don Q is disintegrating in somebody's Leaky garage in Italy

[Nate H]

maybe Oja would rather let the footage rot in a leaky garage and let Jess Franco's abomination be considered 'definitive' rather than eat humble pie

or maybe she doesnt care about Don Q because she ain't the star... of that one?

/speculation

[Jeff Wilson]

Oja has been on record stating that Franco had no clue what he was doing. I have no idea why she hasn't pursued ownership of the footage if she really believes she owns it, but it looks like a power struggle between her and Bonanni.

[The Voice of Cornstarch]

Oja: I have no idea why she hasn't pursued ownership of the footage if she really believes she owns it, but it looks like a power struggle between her and Bonanni.

There are two separate issues with Don Q

1) securing the footage in a controlled environment

2) sorting out copyright and completion funding

The person in physical possession does not trust Munich Flimuseum and other established intermediaries because he fears (perhaps justifiably) that they will turn control over to Oja Kodar.

The first priority is to identify a trusted fiduciary to hold the footage and not surrender Mr. Bonanni's control. This does not require much money.
So we can avoid the lines of discussion recently about TOSOTW on who is not coming up with $ millions.
Solving the storage problem requires something the members of this board are good at 'creative thinking'.

A simple plan:

Who is there that would be trusted by Mr. Bonanni who could preserve the footage (or perhaps digitize it) so that it will hold up possibly for decades. A suitable facility could possibly preserve the footage for future generations to work out. The Leaky Garage won't make it.

[halfaorson]

Who is there that would be trusted by Mr. Bonanni who could preserve the footage (or perhaps digitize it) so that it will hold up possibly for decades. A suitable facility could possibly preserve the footage for future generations to work out. The Leaky Garage won't make it.

That's a possibility, but the only one that can do something is Bonanni, without considering the legal causes plauguing him. The problem is, Mauro is risking all alone. That's why i imagine the "foundation" is the only thing we can do, while the last choice is in Bonanni's hands and in no other. I don't imagine we'll see Oja Kodar saying "OK, you can keep it and do what you want with it". Plus, let's not forget what they did when Mauro was giving them the material in 1991. This man got a legal cause instead of some kind of medal, for saving this wonderful work, those 20.000 meters of poetry. Mauro, his love for Welles, and his passion for DQ will have the last word. With this symbolic "foundation" that I hope to do, we can collect signs worlwide, we can at least say that we desire to see this footage. I hope Mauro, with his dignity and the strongness he's shown all these years, will do what Henry David Thoreau called a act of "Civil Disobedience".

[The Voice of Cornstarch]

Is it necessary to create a new Foundation?

Would Bonanni accept a kind of "escrow" with the film footage stored by UCLA Film Archives or Indiana University's Lilly Library, if one of them agreed in writing not to release the film to anyone without Bonanni's consent?

Is he willing to put the films in the United States?

[Clive Dale]

Please let's make this happen.

If Don Q actually exists in more or less finished form, lets preserve it.

Even the Cold War ended.
Some day there will be a resolution to Oja Kodar & Beatrice Welles's conflicting claims.
But when that happens say 20 years from now, the films could be unredeemable.
Can't we come up with a practical place for Mr. Bonanni to park his films until this gets worked out?

[Bantock]

Maybe Bonnani should form an alliance with Beatrice and the Orson Welles estate. At least he could be sure the Don Quixote footage wouldn't fall into Oja's hands that way.

[Clive Dale]

No, I'm serious, can't a 501 © 3 be formed for the purpose of protecting this footage?

[ToddBaesen]

To claim that Oja Kodar approves of what Jess Franco did with the material she gave to him is not true. She hated what he did with the DON QUIXOTE material.

It is true, however that she does not agree with Mario Bonanni, who obviously, would be a much better person to have assembled a cut of the DON QUIXOTE material then Jess Franco.

[The Voice of Cornstarch]

That's a possibility, but the only one that can do something is Bonanni, without considering the legal causes plauguing him. The problem is, Mauro is risking all alone. That's why i imagine the "foundation" is the only thing we can do, while the last choice is in Bonanni's hands and in no other. I don't imagine we'll see Oja Kodar saying "OK, you can keep it and do what you want with it". Plus, let's not forget what they did when Mauro was giving them the material in 1991. This man got a legal cause instead of some kind of medal, for saving this wonderful work, those 20.000 meters of poetry. Mauro, his love for Welles, and his passion for DQ will have the last word. With this symbolic "foundation" that I hope to do, we can collect signs worlwide, we can at least say that we desire to see this footage. I hope Mauro, with his dignity and the strongness he's shown all these years, will do what Henry David Thoreau called a act of "Civil Disobedience".

Could you please clarify what Mr. Bonanni would require in order to transfer the location (NOT the control) of the films to a safer and more secure place.
You've made clear his concerns but nor his requirements.
Thank you for bringing this important matter to the attention of the readers of this board.

[Tony]

Bonannini seems very stubborn to me, and not likely to give up that film for anything other than to edit it himself and then see it released; remember Chuck Heston when he said they would have to "pry it from my cold, dead hands"? That's Bonannini regarding DQ, and I think he's absolutely right: should he trust Beatrice or Oja? That film wouldn't exist if it weren't for him, and he was the guy sitting in the editing booth for a year with Welles editing it.

Oh yeah, let's sign some papers and give it away for somebody else to edit! :;):

[halfaorson]

Bonanni would like to realise the film the way it is now. Unedited material, because, like he repeated some times "Nobody will be able to replace Orson, not even me". He doesn't feel he'll be able to remember how he and Orson started the editing of the film (in fact there was a first editing of the movie that Welles took with him when he left Italy). Bonanni CANNOT move the material, since he is in legal trouble since 92 with Patxi Irigoyen and Oja Kodar. I still think "signing papers" is a way to make our voice heard...I really don't know what would happen later (if anything would happen), who would get the material, if this is going to help or to put things worst...Well, I don't know if i'm doing right or wrong, i just know i can't think that material will go lost..

[Tony]

If he gives it to Stephan Droessler or an archive or museum, the Beatrice/Oja lawyers are going to get it through subpenas ... and then, who knows what will happen to it? All he can do is hold on and wait for a miracle, and hope they don't get it :angry: :angry: "Heeeeeelp!" :O