Firstenberg’s Fertile Decade as AFI Chief

With all the other things to be said about it, Jean Firstenberg remarked the other afternoon, “Twin Peaks” reflected nicely on the American Film Institute.

Its creator, David Lynch, had left the Philadelphia School of Art to start a new life in film at the AFI. “He was so broke,” Firstenberg said, “that he lived in the stables at Greystone, having himself locked in at night so the security guards wouldn’t find him and throw him out.” (Greystone was the Beverly Hills mansion that was the first home of the AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies.)

In addition to the two-hour pilot by Lynch himself, episodes of “Twin Peaks” were directed by AFI alumni Caleb Deschanel, Tim Hunter and Lesli Linka-Glatter.

It was in other areas a pleasing year for the AFI. Another of its alumni, Ed Zwick, directed the fine Civil War film, “Glory.” “It had one of the great battle scenes in the whole history of the movies,” Firstenberg said proudly. “I asked Ed, ‘Where did that come from,’ and he grinned. But that’s the philosophy of the conservatory: You have them for a moment and you try to show them the tools. After that, it’s their struggle to find chances to use them.”

Firstenberg took over the leadership of the AFI from its founder and first director, George Stevens Jr., in January, 1980. On Friday at the annual awards luncheon of Women in Film, she receives the group’s Crystal Award for the accomplishments of her first decade in office.

These notably include raising the millions needed to buy the AFI’s permanent home, formerly Immaculate Heart College, at Franklin and Western in Hollywood. Of special note to Women in Film has been her strong backing for the Directing Workshop for Women, whose alumnae include Randa Haines (“Children of a Lesser God”) and Lee Grant (“Tell Me a Riddle”).

“Since it was launched in 1974,” Firstenberg said, “a hundred women have gone through the DWW, and about half of them are now in the Directors Guild. A while ago (producer) Gale Anne Hurd and I had a long meeting about it. Should we continue it? It’s not easy. We’re proud of what the women have done, and yet it’s not a large amount of work.

“And we agreed that that was just the reason to keep the DWW going. It’s still hard for women to get on the short list for directing assignments. Ours is the only program of its kind and it’s important to keep the idea of women as directors in front of the public. Women have to be ready when the opportunities begin to appear. And they must, and they will. We’ve come inches, not miles, but we have to do it that way, inch by inch.”

Looking back over her first decade, Firstenberg sees it not least as “the time film preservation came of age.” The AFI became a focus for the effort with its own preservation efforts, and it lent a hand in the restoration of David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia.”

“People are actively working on preservation everywhere; there’s much broader participation than there was. That was the triumph of the ‘80s, and in the ‘90s the work will get done.”

The ‘90s are also going to see a years-long celebration of the centennial of the movies. “It’s going to crystallize what the cinema has meant to the lives of all of us.” The showy re-releases of classic films that began with “Lawrence of Arabia” and continued with “Funny Face” and “The Ten Commandments” are certain to proliferate.

By now there are 1,000 AFI alumni. At this year’s commencement a week ago, there were 120 graduates, 46 of them receiving master’s degrees, with an honorary degree for editor Dede Allen, presented by Warren Beatty, for whom she edited “Reds.” Another honorary degree will be given to Akira Kurosawa in September when he is here for the launching of his latest film, “Dreams.”

Also honored was John Scully, chief executive of Apple, the computer firm with a special interest in applications of the computer to film. This fall the AFI-Apple Computer Center for Film and Video Makers will open on the AFI campus.

“It’s a far different job that I’m doing than the one I came to do 10 years ago,” Jean Firstenberg says. “The world is no longer divided into nonprofit and profit-making organizations. All organizations have to be run in a totally businesslike way, almost non-idealistic ways.”

Philanthropy no longer exists as it did only a decade ago, Firstenberg has discovered. “Corporate giving is now market-driven, related to the corporate image.”

Like educational institutions generally, Firstenberg says, the AFI has to look hard at everything it does. “Is it essential to the mandate . . . and will it generate income?”

The AFI is looking to summer programs that will make use of the campus during what might otherwise be an unproductive time. “It’s like McDonald’s adding breakfast rather than waiting to open at lunchtime. Yes, I guess we’re looking for our own Egg McMuffin.

“We have to be more entrepreneurial than ever before.”

To ease the annual financial strain, Firstenberg has launched Campaign 2000, a $20-million endowment fund that, she says, “should launch us into the new century.”