Do you remember the giddy thrill you used to get at school when your teacher told you that today’s lesson would be to watch a video? Documentaries, along with Wikipedia, are ideal sources for getting information on a topic easily without losing your sanity to the sheer choice and near-cryptic organisation systems of libraries. Unfortunately, if there’s nothing on TV or catch-up services like BBC iPlayer, finding older documentaries is practically impossible and buying DVDs is expensive. YouTube is alright, but its ten-minute limit per video and the reluctance of copyright holders to make their content available on such an open platform mean that you’d be lucky to find a well-made video; and I do not advocate torrenting. Luckily, an upcoming website owned by former Clinton assistant Rick Allen, aims to make the process a whole lot easier.
SnagFilms is a website that freely distributes full-length documentaries on a wide range of topics, populated by producers and film-makers who have opted to let their work be shown. This includes some well-known or otherwise notable documentaries such as Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Super Size Me’ and the tongue-in-cheek ‘Macheads’. With a snazzy search interface, you can narrow search results by selecting topics from a pre-set list. Select one topic, and the number of results drops to only include relevant videos, select another and it drops again. You can keep selecting as many sub-topics as you like to refine search before you see the results, then simply select the documentary you want and go. The site uses a flash-based video player so there’s seldom need to install any messy plug-ins, and the site streams, like YouTube, so, on a standard connection speed, the videos are there to watch instantly. Furthering the comparisons with YouTube, each video can be rated and registered users can make comments, videos are always free but you can donate money to support the continued running and growth of the site.
Unfortunately, some of the documentaries are prohibited by location-based copyright laws and, though they will appear in search results, are blocked from being shown outside the US; not that there aren’t a dozen ways to get around that. Also, the more professional productions, such as BBC documentaries, are often only submitted once they reach a certain age, so often they can feel rather outdated, hearing Richard Dawkins use the arguments he rehashed in his book The God Delusion means that the BBC’s ‘The Atheism Files’ hardly feels like the innovative documentary it undoubtedly was in 2003.
Though, at present, the site is dominated mostly by professional filmmakers, such as Paul Newman’s ‘War Without Winners’ and Jim Killeen’s ‘Google Me’, the site is open for aspiring filmmakers to submit their work, with particular emphasis on students. Here is where the YouTube comparison stops, however, as the submitted videos must have been accepted by a major film festival and be free of any potentially offensive or copyrighted material, so my recent documentary graphically demonstrating the mating rituals of the camel set to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ song ‘Hump de Bump’ would probably not make it through the submission procedure.
Ah well.
As you’d expect, my coursework has severely depleted my reading, moreso than usual, but I have managed to dish up a few quips. Firstly, I have long-since finished Screen Burn by Charlie Brooker and found it to be a delightfully dejected book, despite it essentially being four years of Brooker’s weekly Guardian columns packaged into one book, starting at 2000 so the TV shows he reviews are a tad outdated and exist as a mere wisp in my memory – the first one mentions the departure of Ricky Butcher in Eastenders who, as I understand it, has since returned, left and returned once again. I have since purchased Brooker’s ‘The Hell of it All’ which is the same format but was released this year and opens in 2007, perhaps something I can be more atuned to.
I have since started reading, for perhaps the second or third time, Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson. This semi-autobiographical novels tells the story of a girl who has been a devout member of the Christian faith her entire life because of her adoptive mother, a frightfully narrow-minded person who clings . This girl grows up and becomes attractive to another female member of her church, and the novel deals with her own acceptance of her sexuality with her faith, as well as the complex reactions of those around her. The book has some seemingly over-exaggerated depictions of religious practises, but given that this is based on Winterson’s real experiences, this is likely not overstated – however, the book is not an plain and simple criticism of religion, as the protagonist maintains her faith throughout, but is simply a critique of people taking the teachings of religion, using Christianity as an example, too seriously and the impact that can have. The relationship is, unsuprisingly, tested by Jeanette’s revelation but a glimmer of hope at the end tempers the dramatic events of the book with an uplifting ending.
