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thursday may 23 | 9:30 pm
WHY THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
Since no documentary film festival would be complete without
a documentary about documentaries, DOXA presents two videos which
offer insights into the question, Where is documentary film going?
Community Sponsor: Campaign
for Press & Broadcasting Freedom
Countdown
Director: Stephen Marshall (USA, 2001, 5 min, video)
In 2001, Guerilla News Network produced no less
than eight shorts for the web, which look like the bastard children
of TV docs, music video and World News Now. Complete with mixing
by Beastie Boy, Ad Rock, and enough visual wit to make a Ralph Nader
campaign speech look sexy, Countdown takes aim at an increasingly
myopic mass media, striking with rapid-fire accuracy.
The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter
Watkins
Director: Geoff Bowie (Canada, 2001, 76 min, video) (English, French
with subtitles)
Reality TV... Caught on Tape... Real Life Stories...
Non-fiction "content providers" struggle to meet unprecedented market
demands within the formula of the "universal clock" - a straitjacket
that imposes thematic and running-time restrictions on television
programming for a global market. Documentarians like Geoff Bowie
are left to wonder where the documentary fits in this age of infotainment.
The Universal Clock starts in familiar behind-the-scenes
territory with a look at the making of a narrative film by Academy
Award-winner Peter Watkins, entitled La Commune. For his six-hour
docudrama about the Paris insurrection of 1871, Watkins assembles
a cast of hundreds of non-professionals who are asked to place themselves
in that revolutionary moment. The process prompts reflection by
both the participants and Bowie, who takes us into the lives and
personal circumstances of several La Commune cast members. In contrast
to this environment is the decidedly unrevolutionary MIPTV, an international
television market at Cannes. Here we see industry strategists glibly
proclaiming their production formulae as the universal standard
for the global entertainment market. Weaving together these different
perspectives, Bowie meditates on the documentary form, creating
a film that is at turns provocative and inspiring.
G.W.
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