Bill Pence, original co-founder of Telluride, dies at 82

Update: Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Tom Bernard in a phone interview with IndieWire said the following about Bill Pence: "[I've been going to Telluride] since 1978. Bill Pence was one of the pioneers of film repertoire. It led to the festival. He had a chain of theaters all over the west, he would cycle repertoire copies. He would find archival programs that no one else would. had heard of for years, the [other theaters] would follow his example, his festival would become the ultimate repertory theater in his wild dreams. They put this thing together. Also in Telluride, you would see the best impressions from the archives, was one of the pleasures of going. Bill organized it; one of the roots of the festival was Bill Pence's love of movies and older cinema.

"I remember a year that stands out: Bill had original copies of Hitchcock movies that no one could get and watch in theaters on screen. One time. Another memory that I 'ai from Bill, he presented many films, some people seemed to be able to do it easily, some people couldn't. I saw him alone preparing with intensity, ready to enter the Sheridan Opera House for the film of the evening opening night, rehearsing his speech, walking into it, wooing the crowd with the magic he was about to perform. It was something he was proud of. It took a lot of courage to be able to keep doing that.

"One of the highlights of a festival was Napoleon in the park: three screens, three projectors, Abel Gance was there.

"Bill Pence programmed the best movies he could find. He created an experience for our lives that we would never have again. Incredible Moments: Where Else Would You Meet Cab Calloway or Jimmy Stewart or will you sit next to Lillian Gish on a plane?"

Director Paul Schrader wrote in an email to IndieWire: "Although Tom Luddy is most associated with the Telluride Film Festival, it was Bill Pence (and his wife Stella) who literally started the ' SHOW' at the Sheridan Opera House, which became the TFF. Bill was every inch Tom's equal in adventurous programming and left an imprint wherever he went."

Earlier: Bill Pence, the cinema curator and theater operator best known as one of the founders of the Telluride Film Festival, died on December 6 after a long illness, IndieWire has confirmed. He was 82 years old.

Pence co-founded Telluride, held annually in the Colorado town on Labor Day weekend in 1974, with his wife Stella Pence, James Card and Tom Luddy. He was co-director and president of the National Film Preserve, which runs the annual festival. Pence also established the Santa Fe Film Festival with his wife Stella in 1980, and the two ran it for three years.

"Bill Pence is an almost mythical figure in the Telluride Film Festival landscape," said Julie Huntsinger, Executive Director of the Telluride Film Festival, in a statement shared with IndieWire. “An incredibly generous founder but one description is not enough. A showman, a visionary, a great leader, a movie buff - all of these things and more. But most important of all, Bill was a great person. Kind and intelligent and a wonderful father and husband. We continue to be inspired by his example and pledge to continue the important work of film appreciation. »

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pence first worked as an usher in the city's movie theaters. In the 1950s, he attended Carnegie Mellon University (then known as Carnegie Tech), where he ran the student film society. After several years in the US Air Force after graduation, he began his career in film preservation, restoration and distribution, establishing Film Arts Enterprises in 1961.

Pence opened his first movie theater in 1965 and soon acquired more than a dozen art and commercial movie theaters through The Flick, Rocky Mountain Cinemas and The Picture Show Corporation, which he owns in the 1980s. Pence focused on distributing specialty, independent, and foreign films to non-metro college towns. Notable theaters he directed include the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, the Egyptian in Park City, the Princess in Crested Butte, the Chief in Steamboat Springs, and the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride.

From 1965 to 1978, Pence worked as vice president of the film distribution company Janus Films. While at the distributor, he focused on building the company's classic film library, which eventually served as the initial foundation for home video curation...