The Telluride Film Festival has never been primarily about showing classic films or staging tributes to this or that legendary figure. It’s always been a here-and-now-and-into-the-future type of thing. So why create a festival poster full of sprocket holes? “I decided to celebrate celluloid at a time when the old analog medium is being replaced by digital technology,” artist Christian Marclay has written. “I also wanted to show how cinema is an art of collage — fragments are collected and assembled to tell a story. The filmstrip with its sprocket holes and optical sound track is instantly recognized as the universal symbol for film. I wonder what will replace it?” Well, that’s the creative challenge in this instance, isn’t it?
