OFF COLOR

An ad for a colorized version (also the original black-and-white version) of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” was published in the new issue of American Film, which calls itself “the magazine of the American Film Institute.” We wondered how that jibes with AFI’s official position of being opposed to the process of adding color to old films.

It doesn’t jibe at all. In fact, the AFI is on record against colorizing. But that has nothing to do with the publication. “The magazine is operated as a separate and distinct journalistic543518308advertising policies,” she added, that do not necessarily reflect AFI positions.

The magazine itself hasn’t yet taken an editorial position, according to West Coast Editor Jill Kearney. Perhaps it will by the January issue, she added. But the colorizing has generated so much emotion, isn’t it hard to see AFI’s “magazine” accepting ads for something it opposes? Sure it is, says Firstenberg. “I was disappointed to see it in the magazine. But the magazine doesn’t ask for my opinion.”