celluloidnotes

Michael Moore’s new film, Slacker Uprising, has just been released (about a half hour ago). Slacker Uprising is being released by Moore for free online. You can download the video at SlackerUprising.com. The video is currently only being offered in a stream from the website. But, according to Moore’s press release, the video will soon be available in an HD stream for free from Amazon.com, and will shortly afterwards be released for iTunes and iPod.

Moore’s film seems to follow in the tradition that Radiohead have laid out for new media, pay what you want, though in this case you can’t pay at all. It’s a clever idea and I hope it works. Can you imagine living in a world where quality documentaries (though I make no claims to the quality of this as I have not yet seen it) are released for free, to inform the public. A world where this type of film could break free from the bonds of the narrative film system and where recognized as a separate type of art, where they aren’t doomed to failure in the theaters from the moment “documentary” is uttered. That’d be nice. Even if the film isn’t that great I think Moore is doing something great for the industry (though this has been done before, but not at this level - Spare Change and other great docs are currently available for free online at various websites).

I’m excited to see it, even if it doesn’t end up being his best work.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS