In the lead up to the 7th Canadian Film Festival in Australia (August 2012), join us as we countdown the Top 100 Canadian Films of the past 30 years. We'll be posting one film a day leading up to Canada Day on July 1st 2012. Do you agree with our staff favourites? Let us know your thoughts!
Number one: Creativity always builds on the past.
Number two: The past will always try to control the future.
Number three: Our future is becoming less free.
Number four: To build something free, you must limit the control of the past.
Filmmaker Brett Gaylor went ahead and did just that and created what he claims to be the world’s first open source documentary, contributed to by hundreds of people remixing works and uploading them to his Open Source Cinema website.
The result is RiP: A Remix Manifesto, which battles ideas surrounding the legality of remixing existing artworks. This is explored through interviews with a range of people; experts in copyright law, Creative Commons instigators, DJ Girl Talk (and his parents!) and people who have been sued for their breach of copyright licenses; from cartoonists to a single mum sued US$222,220 for sharing songs on Kazaa; and, of course, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich.
It’s passionate, vibrant, and funny, and absolutely of our time; but at the heart is
something serious that affects all of us (creatives). As the film points out, if we
don’t just want to consume but want to create and remix existing culture, we are
hit up with endless barriers, legal jargon, and searches for loop holes.
The spotlight on remix culture is exciting. This was my first encounter with Girl
Talk; seeing the crowd go wild at his gigs and watching him explain how he
dissects and then rebuilds songs is mind blowing. It made me think a lot about
where I stood on topics of copyright, creative commons, freedom of expression,
and the beauty and discovery in sharing; I can’t recommend it enough.
Decide how much you’d like to pay for this film (the website has a ‘you name the
price’ option), watch it with friends that you can heatedly debate with afterwards,
then download the latest Girl Talk album and dance any animosity away.
-Karina Libbey
"A movie that manages to cut through the tangled history of intellectual property clearly and colourfully." (Jim Slotek, Jam! Movies)
To see the other films in the countdown so far, click here.