In Memory of Amos Vogel 1921-2012

IN MEMORY OF AMOS VOGEL 1921-2012 

SCMS notes with sadness the passing of Amos Vogel, a key figure in film education and exhibition in the United States. Vogel was co-founder of the New York Film Festival, creator of the influential avant-garde film club Cinema 16, and a pedagogue who taught film at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, The New School, and NYU, among other institutions. Deeply influential in the promotion of film culture, he championed/programmed the work of directors including Roman Polanski, John Cassavetes, Jacques Rivette, Maya Deren, and Kenneth Anger. Throughout his long career Vogel celebrated convention-breaking cinema, crusaded against censorship, and advocated for representational innovation. His activities as a proponent for a robust, international, and humane film culture were wide ranging, though he is best known to scholars for his 1974 book Film As A Subversive Art.  

Amos Vogel was a lifetime member of SCMS and a recipient of the Honorary Membership Award (now known as the Distinguished Career Achievement Award).  His active involvement in the Society of Cinematologists, the predecessor to what we know today as SCMS, included membership on the Council 1966-1969 and service on the Nominating Committee 1974-1975. 

Vogel’s exemplary commitment to the furthering of film education and his impact on film culture constitute important and valued legacies. He will be remembered for his manifold contributions to the thoughtful reflection about and appreciation of cinema.