So what does democracy have to do with making movies?

It’s often said that when the domestic video camera arrived in the eighties it democratized the movies. Many (ok, many might be a big word but a few at least) have asked me what I mean when I say this and let me begin with asking you a question. What is the most powerful medium of communication today? When you have answered this question out loud answer this next one. Before the age of domestic video cameras who could afford to make a movie? Well, not too many I would dare to say. The technology was both very expensive and complicated to use before someone realized that everything could be made on a piece of magnetic tape instead of using expensive chemicals.

‘So where are you going with this’ I hear some of you say. To be able to express yourself in one of the most powerful mediums currently available is democracy to me. Today everyone can grab a camcorder and record what ever they want. When I was young people wrote articles in the local paper when they wanted to express their opinions to a wider audience that the gathering around the kitchen table. Today there are local film festivals in most towns where young people can show what they have created. It’s everything from zombie splatter to documentaries about domestic violence. It’s a voice of the younger generation who has grown up with TV as the prime medium for expressing opinions not the printed word our parents lived by. Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock are just the tip of the iceberg empowering a whole generation itching to get their voice heard.

I remembered reading that famed director Robert Altman actually made his TV series Tanner on Tanner with that idea in mind.

“That‘s what my, what our series is about. It is about this glut. That anybody with a $1,500 camera can become a documentary filmmaker. They can worry about what they‘re going to put on that camera but any kid who has one, they can edit it on their own computer.”
- Robert Altman interviewed on MSNBC (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6232178/)

The down side of it is that since everyone can contribute the sheer volume of crappy material that threatens to drown the really good material but that is a risk we have to take considering what’s at stake… Not sure what I wanted to say with this but I felt it was important to rant about it.