Double Flee A

Lewis Lapham wrote a piece this month about how documentary makers outnumber documentary buyers by a lot, and it made me think what we need is at least one documentary channel, to fix that problem. I would watch it and I know plenty of other people who would, too. Documentary film is the most value-dense form of video that I know of, sort of an inversion of MTV.

Take crossover hit "American movie", a classic by any standard, or short films like "Foo foo dust", one of the most disturbing films ever. The fact that it's real amplifies its content in a way that Oprah and James Frey can attest translates well at the cash register. Too bad that "million little pieces" thing didn't work out; scandal sells even better than Oprah's endorsement:

WILD EXAGGERATIONS FORCE PUBLISHER TO RETITLE JAMES FREY’S BOOK “TEN LITTLE PIECES”

Oprah downplays controversy, announces new book: “How I’ve Always Been Thin”

Working in a coffeeshop I dealt with more than a few disgruntled artists who blamed the marketplace for their financially discouraging situations. It's my tendency to want to blame them for their art (which more often than not sucks) being the problem instead of the invisible hand of commerce, but it's not that simple.

As in the movie Bad Santa, wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first. Wishing, blaming, and documentary filmmaking being a little too similar by Lapham's account, if something must be done to squelch the choir of disappointment and frustration, why not make an effort to change the marketplace to a more favorable condition?

I am pretty hung over today.

posted by dale @ 12:28 PM