RiP! a Remix Manifesto
Brett Gaylor:
RiP! a Remix Manifesto (Canada, 2009)
80 min. - English
RiP! A Remix Manifesto discusses the concept of music copyrights from an interesting perspective. In the days of Napster, Spotify and pirate parties, copyright and the ownership of ideas have emerged as everyday discussion topics. In his open-source documentary Brett Gaylor presents the idea that music has developed through loaning and theft. The giants of the history of music, such as Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones, have managed to build their music by using old music production as their basis, but due to strict copyright surveillance today, this is no longer possible. Technological development would make the most imaginative loans possible, but lawyers don't have respect for these innovations.
The main character in RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, Gregg Gills is better known by his artist name Girl Talk. The hottest name and party king of mash-up builds his own impression of pop music with songs based on samples. Gills' music sums up Gaylor's question: where do you draw the line when it comes to incorporeal rights? To prove the noble-mindedness of his thoughts Gaylor has also used the idea of open source with his documentary: anyone can download his raw materials on his home page and edit a documentary of their own. Perhaps we'll see your version of RiP!: A Remix Manifesto in next year's Rokumentti.
—
BRETT GAYLOR
Brett Gaylor is a Canadian documentary filmmaker living in Montreal, Quebec. Born in 1977, he grew up on Galiano Island, British Columbia. He is a member director of EyeSteelFilm documentary production company and its Head of New Media. He is the founder of the Open Source Cinema project and the web producer of Homeless Nation.
