2007 May | The Conveyor Belt - A Fashion and Lifestyle Journal

Repeated news reports of individuals being sued for copyright infringement after downloading music piqued Brett Gaylor’s interest years ago – somehow it seemed wrong to turn children into criminals for sharing files over the internet. When he attended the pivotal MGM vs Grokster court hearing in 2005 with a camera in tow, the idea for a collaborative feature-length documentary that outlined and debated copyright laws in North America first came to him. Remember Snakes on a Plane and how that famous Samuel L. Jackson line was lifted from an online chat room suggestion? This is similar, except here the user has the power to contribute on a much larger scale. Brett calls this open source cinema, where the content is created, remixed or edited by the audience itself.

The biggest current example of an open source project is Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia that is generated and edited entirely by its users. Brett hopes to facilitate a similar phenomenon with this documentary, backed by creative partners Eyesteel Films and the National Film Board of Canada. Through the website, users from anywhere can upload media, edit existing content, and rearrange the wiki however they see fit. One example of this is a feature on mash-up musician Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) in the doc. Brett’s interview with Gregg is complimented by user-submitted footage of his live shows, edited together online.

It all boils down to a battle about what should exist within the public cultural record. We have entered “The Digital Age” and it seems instinctive to consult popular expression to build new ideas upon. Most of the younger generation today doesn’t consider downloading music and filesharing to be illegal – we are simply accessing the tools we need to create novel ideas and art, investigating our own culture. I balk at the notion that for doing this, I could get 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine – per song. But for now I’ll leave the copyright debate for The Basement Tapes to explore.

Brett has posted an outline on his WikiFilm page of the general direction he hopes the film will take. Beginning with a look at the musical mash-up and remixing trends, he then plans to explore key copyright court cases in recent years and an overview of its laws. Copyright, when it was first created, awarded the artist or creator of a work to 14 years ownership before it entered the public domain. Now they get life plus 70 years protection, more if the work is owned by a corporation. Brett continues with instances of resistance against this global movement of corporation-provoked idea ownership and where Canada stands on the issue.

While Brett Gaylor is the facilitator of this film, it all comes down to you. The talent that exists within the world population and the abundance of things we have to say is evident when you look at sharing outlets like YouTube and Glumbert. Viral video, user-generated content, blogging and a worldwide interconnectedness has been made possible by the internet, and it’s about time big media markets adopted this open attitude. Participate in the evolution of filmmaking and submit your ideas, footage, music and remixes to opensourcecinema.org.

INFAMOUS MAGAZINE, MAY 2007 ISSUE

Like all other David Lynch films I’ve seen, the disturbing awe and confusion that accumulated throughout the course of INLAND EMPIRE slowly faded away as I retreated to try and put the pieces together. It was here that my appreciation grew – but only when I realized that the less I tried to scrutinize the puzzle pieces and determine symbolic meaning, the easier it would be to swallow the film as a whole.

INLAND EMPIRE was shot entirely on DV, running nearly 3 hours, and is so representative of the stark complexity of Lynch’s imagination that no distributor would touch it. Think Mulholland Drive multiplied by a hundred. This film completely abandons narrative linear progression in favour of a nightmarish journey. We don’t know if we are in past, present or future, and neither does our lead character.

Nikki (superbly acted by Laura Dern) is met in her home by a bulgy-eyed European woman (Grace Zabriskie) who lives “just down the way,” where the notion of time is first called into question. The woman advises Nikki that she will get the role she’s after, then asks if it is about marriage and murder. Nikki is shocked and confused, but as we follow her gaze across the living room we find ourselves in tomorrow, where she receives word that she’s just gotten the part in a movie that will re-launch her wilting acting career.

Nikki stars in the film “On High With Blue Tomorrows” opposite Devon (Justin Theroux), a slick womanizer who is repeatedly warned to stay away from Nikki or bear serious consequences from her rich and powerful husband. Their characters, Sue and Billy, engage in an adulterous affair on-screen, but as the film progresses the distinction between “reality” and “movie” becomes impossible to distinguish. The producers also reveal that the script is a re-write of an old Polish movie, based on a gypsy fable, and was never completed because the two leads were brutally murdered. They warn that people consider this story to be cursed, but the actors decide to soldier on.

The filming of “On High With Blue Tomorrows” is the one coherent narrative thread within INLAND EMPIRE, but soon becomes entangled within the web of rabbit-holes that Lynch constructs. He drives the anti-plot into a horrific labyrinth, peppered by an obsession with a screwdriver, a formula etched onto doors, hookers who lounge about and laugh incessantly, and literal journeys through dark hallways and stairwells. I initially took the repetition of these elements as clues to be deciphered; narrative film teaches us to analyse recurring events, but Lynch subverts this rule by leading us nowhere down these roads.

One seemingly unrelated branch features three people in rabbit suits on a sitcom set, where empty dialogue is followed by inappropriate audience laughter. Likewise, the absurdity of the Hollywood empire seeping into the lives of viewers and skewing their perspective extends into Nikki’s life as she accepts the role of Sue. She allows herself to rely on the most superficial industry to bring excitement and meaning back into her stale, controlled married life. Illusions like these allow us to escape from reality, but this is a fragile and dangerous glass house, as Lynch demonstrates in the last third of the film.

“Inland Empire” is a cluster of suburbs south of LA, so it fits that he places his characters within comfortable looking homes throughout most of this film. In the land of Lynch, home is not a safe haven; home is where ugly, unexpected things occur, and you couldn’t escape even if you tried. I think Lynch’s take is that we are trapped by our domestic lives, and when we try to compensate for this by leading a double-life – “acting” – struggle and disassociation with the self ensues.

If you are already a fan of David Lynch, INLAND EMPIRE will take you deeper than you’ve ever been before. But if you are a newcomer, I recommend starting with a more manageable bite. As you progress throughout the varied works of this acclaimed director and artist, your perceptions and expectations will dance circles around you and eventually culminate around this ground-breaking film.

INLAND EMPIRE screens at the Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour) daily at 7:30pm, May 3-8. www.vifc.org

INFAMOUS MAGAZINE, MAY 2007 ISSUE