Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, January 7: WE CAUSE SCENES

Matt Adams’ overview of the history of prank collective Improv Everywhere had its world premiere at SXSW last year. It went on to screen at Hot Docs, Heartland, Philadelphia, and St Louis, among others. The film now becomes available for direct download and on iTunes via FilmBuff.

In 2001, aspiring actor Charlie Todd was inexplicably mistaken for musician Ben Folds in a bar and ran with it, convincing other patrons he was the singer and giving them a story to tell friends. Inspired, Todd set out to create other memorable moments for the strangers of the city, recruiting friends to stage the first No Pants Subway Ride, an event that has since become a popular annual occurrence. Dubbing their escapades Improv Everywhere, Todd and his motley crew of accomplices set up a website and videotaped their exploits – but in a pre-YouTube age, couldn’t really disseminate them – and a new form of public performance art/mass practical joke was born. Recruiting “agents” online as word spread about their pranks – from staging a rooftop U2 concert with imposters to causing havoc in a Best Buy by dressing like their employees – Todd attracted television interest but ultimately wasn’t picked up for a series. When YouTube launched, Todd suddenly had a way to easily share video footage of IE’s escapades, including the pranks filmed for the TV pilot, which went viral, spawning imitators around the world, widespread media attention, and invitations for Todd to stage a wide variety of events for a range of partners. While Todd is a genial guide, Adams’ film is something of a greatest hits clip show (often drowning in distracting background music), and decidedly surface – there’s virtual no attempt to explore the deeper dynamics of what IE does, why “agents” want to become involved, or why their pranks elicit anger or irritation in some of those not in on the joke. Still, the viewer does get a sense of the fun being perpetrated on an unsuspecting public, and, more interestingly, offers an intriguing window into a surprisingly recent pre-social media cultural phenomena.

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 7: EATING ALABAMA

Andrew Beck Grace’s exploration of food and farming had its world premiere at SXSW in 2012. It went on to screen at Full Frame, New Orleans, Sidewalk, Oxford, SF Doc Fest, and the Southern Circuit Tour, among others. FilmBuff now releases the doc on iTunes, Movies on Demand, Amazon, Google, Sony PlayStation, Xbox, Cinemanow, and Vudu.

A sort of food-focused spin on NO IMPACT MAN, Grace’s film documents a year-long attempt by the Alabama-based filmmaker and his wife Rashmi to eat only locally-sourced food – at least for about half the film. Motivated by his familial connection to farming – his grandfather, who pops up in the film more than once, left agriculture decades ago, but shared with him nostalgic tales of a simpler age connected to the land – Grace longs for a way of life he quickly comes to realize essentially no longer exists – at least not in any kind of sustainable manner, as an initial search for groceries results in a nearly 800-mile trek. Still, a combination of local small-scale farmers, home gardening, and creative menu planning gets Andrew and Rashmi through the year, at which point the film somewhat awkwardly changes course to consider just why his nostalgia-fueled dream is so unsustainable in an age of industrial farming and hyper-litigious companies like Monsanto. Grace’s generally likeable if structurally bifurcated film joins a growing body of food and farming focused docs, but is notable – for better and for worse – in its adoption of a personal essay approach, with near-constant narration that grounds it even as it feels a bit too hokey.