"(...)The film society aims to further the appreciation of film. The film society welcomes controversy. Entertainment value cannot be the sole criterion for film society programming, nor can audience approval or disapproval. The film society must remain at least one step ahead of the audiences, and must not permit themselves to be pulled down to the level of the lowest common denominator in the audience(...)."
The founder of Cinema 16, co-founder of the New York Film Festival and author of Film as a Subversive Art was 91.