| Play from beginning |
| 00:00:00 | Interview with Craig Baldwin |
| 00:00:05 | I'm very sceptical
of these new media revolutions |
| 00:00:07 | just so you know... |
| 00:00:09 | The video revolution came out
and very quickly |
| 00:00:12 | that was turned into America's home video, |
| 00:00:15 | everything was shot by people
who were in their homes, |
| 00:00:19 | same thing happened with youtube, |
| 00:00:21 | twenty years ago when a video camera
came into people's hands, |
| 00:00:25 | and what they shot is basically... |
| 00:00:26 | their cat getting drunk,
you know what I mean, |
| 00:00:30 | and that's fine |
| 00:00:32 | but how many billions of cats getting drunk
do you want to see |
| 00:00:37 | so, that's for me,
a cartoon version of the absurdity |
| 00:00:44 | I'm not asking for there to be
an avantgarde group of people |
| 00:00:48 | who will lead the viewers, |
| 00:00:50 | but I'm just saying people should
step up to the challenge of youtube |
| 00:00:55 | and not just me brush my teeth,
brush my cat's teeth, whatever... |
| 00:01:00 | and so what? |
| 00:01:01 | Anyway this is an issue about
utopia and dystopia, |
| 00:01:04 | it is a central issue, |
| 00:01:08 | I don't want to say I'm utopian
or I'm dystopian, that's silly, |
| 00:01:12 | the onus is not on some technological... |
| 00:01:14 | there's been a million technological developments that failed |
| 00:01:19 | all of which could have produced
some kind of change in society. |
| 00:01:25 | Look at radio,
you have internet radio, sure, |
| 00:01:28 | you have micro-broadcasters, sure,
but in the same period of time |
| 00:01:32 | the 80s and the 90s, you have massive
consolidation here in the US with Clear Channel |
| 00:01:36 | in the same period of time. |
| 00:01:38 | So you might say... |
| 00:01:40 | well the group of people
listening to 'alternative' rock or whatever |
| 00:01:44 | grew from 3% to 7% |
| 00:01:46 | in the same period of time
all the people who listen to the jazz stations |
| 00:01:51 | jazz - good example - jazz |
| 00:01:53 | classical, you know,
that 60% of the people, |
| 00:02:01 | now they have to listen to |
| 00:02:04 | stations that are run
by the same corporation. |
| 00:02:05 | In other words,
half as many providers, |
| 00:02:08 | and all their playlists are
already set by some committee. |
| 00:02:12 | So, yeah, sure,
we had cable access |
| 00:02:15 | we had UHF
don't you know... |
| 00:02:17 | We had FM radio, it's all in Specters,
another film I made... |
| 00:02:21 | What I mean is,
this theory has already been shredded |
| 00:02:26 | since the sixties,
it didn't really... |
| 00:02:29 | all these utopian promises were not delivered. |
| 00:02:36 | they all ended up in
more consolidation, more power. |
| 00:02:42 | I don't want to be part of the rush of people |
| 00:02:45 | saying that just because we have
this or that platform |
| 00:02:51 | you know, the ugly past is behind us |
| 00:02:54 | because many of the people who control
these new avenues of distribution |
| 00:03:00 | are in fact corporations,
very rich, |
| 00:03:04 | they're larger than the television
from the generation before |
| 00:03:10 | well, they compete now
with the television companies |
| 00:03:14 | Yeah, you can watch my movies,
or your movies for that matter, |
| 00:03:19 | anywhere in the world but... |
| 00:03:20 | you can also watch anything from Hollywood,
just so you know |
| 00:03:23 | Yeah, through BitTorrent
or Youtube or whatever |
| 00:03:27 | digitally you can move a file to China or whatever |
| 00:03:33 | but way more bad things are going out
than good things |
| 00:03:38 | yeah it's like the faucet is turned on more
there's more flow, |
| 00:03:43 | again, there's no argument there, |
| 00:03:46 | but just because you have more flow
I don't think it's necessarily a good thing. |
| 00:03:49 | It does open up space
for other kinds of things |
| 00:03:52 | that didn't make it into the flow, |
| 00:03:54 | but they're totally diluted,
if you ask me, |
| 00:03:57 | totally diffused
with all the other stuff |
| 00:04:01 | there's more commercial messaging,
more war, |
| 00:04:05 | there's more misogyny. |
| 00:04:08 | Don't you see,
I'm not a utopian |
| 00:04:10 | I'm realistic |
| 00:04:12 | Just because we have other means
of making movies and distributing movies |
| 00:04:19 | it doesn't mean |
| 00:04:22 | that the basic conditions of life on the planet |
| 00:04:25 | for most human beings will change. |
| 00:04:27 | I think it's a good thing for those people
who do have access to computers, |
| 00:04:30 | who are certainly a minority of people on the planet |
| 00:04:33 | and those people who choose to take |
| 00:04:36 | access to older work,
archives |
| 00:04:41 | that's also a very small minority. |
| 00:04:43 | And by the way, with copyright,
which we haven't really gotten around to |
| 00:04:46 | at the same time that
there's the proliferation of |
| 00:04:49 | platforms for media production,
exhibition and distribution |
| 00:04:53 | really, in terms of the law |
| 00:04:56 | it's clearly, there's no doubt about it,
I challenge you... |
| 00:05:00 | to come up with any evidence to the contrary |
| 00:05:04 | that the restrictions around |
| 00:05:07 | what's proprietary material |
| 00:05:10 | has become much more narrow, |
| 00:05:12 | there's no doubt about it |
| 00:05:14 | I can name three,
there's the Sonny Bono Act, |
| 00:05:16 | this is of course in the United States, |
| 00:05:18 | the Digital Millenium Copyright Act |
| 00:05:21 | all of these have really acted to |
| 00:05:24 | to restrict people to less and less material |
| 00:05:29 | which was part of our cultural legacy. |
| 00:05:31 | Of course there can be people who use it |
| 00:05:34 | despite the copyright legislation |
| 00:05:37 | which is precisely the people
I keep talking about |
| 00:05:39 | the outlaws and the margins |
| 00:05:42 | who do things regardless of the wider trends. |
| 00:05:45 | This march towards the web |
| 00:05:47 | as some possible way out |
| 00:05:51 | in the guise again of this utopian... |
| 00:05:55 | exercise of free speech so... |
| 00:05:59 | I remain unconvinced of that. |
| 00:06:04 | There's exceptions, and by the way,
they're all subcultural |
| 00:06:07 | they're all minorities, |
| 00:06:10 | there's not going to be some magic pill |
| 00:06:13 | BitTorrent or Youtube
that's going to stop the problems |
| 00:06:16 | it has to do with human imagination |
| 00:06:20 | and critical will,
that will do it. |
| 00:06:24 | it could be argued that those things
make possible and enhance |
| 00:06:29 | critical agency |
| 00:06:34 | And I'm willing to give that a chance. |
| 00:06:36 | I haven't really seen any proof of it yet. |
| 00:06:38 | There's plenty of people out there
who are watching |
| 00:06:43 | the worst kind of soap opera right now |
| 00:06:46 | all over the planet |
| 00:06:48 | and i can't save them you know |
| 00:06:50 | hard as I've tried!
I can't save them! |
| 00:06:53 | But the thing is,
it's not me versus them, |
| 00:06:55 | that's not the model anymore,
those people will always be there, |
| 00:07:00 | Bu the ideas will be carried on
by a smaller group of people, |
| 00:07:04 | be they activists,
or be they anarchists |
| 00:07:07 | or be they artists |
| 00:07:09 | it's gotta start with an 'A', whatever! |
| 00:07:11 | So I'm looking for more of a... |
| 00:07:17 | I embrace the democracy but |
| 00:07:19 | really it has to with will, |
| 00:07:22 | it has to do with consciousness,
it has to with a critical point of view |
| 00:07:28 | and the critical skills |
| 00:07:31 | aren't necessarily there
just because we have platforms, |
| 00:07:34 | wider bandwidth or whatever, |
| 00:07:36 | that's what's going
to make the difference for me. |
