{"id":11834,"date":"2015-07-15T20:05:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T00:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11834"},"modified":"2015-07-15T20:21:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T00:21:06","slug":"internet-tales-1001-alex-winters-deep-web-2015-downloaded-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11834","title":{"rendered":"Internet Tales 1001: Alex Winter’s Deep Web (2015) + Downloaded (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DeepWeb2015_poster_s\"<\/a>The theatrical release of Alex Winter\u2019s latest internet-themed documentary Deep Web<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(2015) at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema<\/a> this past week mandated a re-examination of docs covering some of the most pivotal aspects of how consumer habits were radically altered within a short period of time by crucial developments in internet software.<\/p>\n

What the key figures in this short series share are youth and a brilliant grasp of technology which changed the way goods are accessed, consumed, and valued.<\/p>\n

Deep Web<\/strong> is a natural follow-up to Winter\u2019s Napster doc Downloaded<\/a><\/strong> (2013) because it delves into darker terrain where hardcore drugs could be bought and sold on a merchant site called Silk Road. Creator Ross Ulbricht was young and savvy and an anarchist with ideals that ultimately sent him to jail, and it\u2019s a story where someone brilliant tried to make a bold statement against a failed governmental policy \u2013 America\u2019s War on Drugs \u2013 but did so in a really extreme fashion that could never have ended well.<\/p>\n

\"Downloaded2013_poster\"<\/a>Winter\u2019s Downloaded<\/strong> shares the same directorial care in assembling a wealth of interview subjects, plus substantive archival material to cover the full lifespan of Napster (or as much as its running time will allow).<\/p>\n

Napster was and remains one of the chief reasons media is not longer restricted to what\u2019s been consistently branded in recent years as a dying format \u2013 physical media. The loss of revenue from dwindling CD and DVD sales has also affected the survival of media sites devoted to reviewing movies and music, which DigitalBits editor Bill Hunt eloquently stated in a recent blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Revenue\u2019s plummeted for many online sites, which explains why so many offer exposure to new writers, but actual pay is zilch or drying up, except for core staff. The few sites that do pay may well find themselves in the same position as The Dissolve<\/a>, which folded July 8th as it failed to make past 2 years.<\/p>\n

Dissolve bigwigs Keith Phipps and Scott Tobias talked quite candidly to Criticwire<\/a> the day after the site\u2019s closing, and while the Q&A isn\u2019t filled with utter gloom, it does suggest that quality reviews on less mainstream, overlooked, independent, and classic films will become harder to find, let alone sustain a major site when the demand to feature shorter pieces on sexier mainstream material is more lucrative.<\/p>\n

Napster didn\u2019t cause The Dissolve<\/strong>\u2019s demise, but it pioneered a glut of product \u2013 too much to choose from, at the click of a button, and dirt cheap. No surprise Netflix and its kin have become curators and arbiters of what many feel constitutes time-worthy media. Moreover, who needs an opinion when our habit of scrolling, shuttling, skipping, and moving on to the next suggested title (or whatever lies a row or page down) has reduced our attention span to making decisions based on glimpses and fast assessments?<\/p>\n

Everyone who used Napster remembers the First Wow: there was an incredible variety of music and movies, many obscure, that were packed on the hard drives of complete strangers, ready for sharing.\u00a0The concept\u2019s been fully corporatized, except it\u2019s now legally licensed movie and TV series streamed in HD for less than $10 a month.<\/p>\n

Alongside <\/span>Terms and Conditions May Apply<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard<\/strong>, <\/span>Downloaded<\/strong> was one of three internet \/ media-related docs that premiered at <\/span>Hot Docs 2013<\/a>, and I\u2019ll revisit those and its kindred in the coming weeks because many of these films were made with both care and an awareness that history needs to be preserved – \u00a0somehow. <\/span><\/p>\n

In our current state, a doc on Napster seems pointless, especially watching it two years since its release, which may explain why it\u2019s not easy to find (except on YouTube), but like <\/span>Deep Web<\/strong>, <\/span>Downloaded<\/strong> represents the kind of great stories of human ingenuity and culture shifts which banal websites won\u2019t cover, or at best in small word counts because the Java and Shockwave fueled ads and videos need more premium screen real estate \u2013 something quality sites are continually fighting to balance with meaty content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coming next<\/em>: soundtrack reviews + a podcast interview with Fabio Frizzi, and links to another blog chapter on the making of Lost and Found<\/strong><\/a> at Big Head Amusements.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nBig Head Amusements<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first of a short series on internet-themed docs, reviews of Alex Winter’s superb diptych: Deep Web (2015) which recently screened at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, and Downloaded (2013), an outstanding chronicle of Napster, which screened at the 2013 Hot Docs Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[3784,3796,3783,2562,2563,2813,3792,3785,3797],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/DeepWeb_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-34S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11834"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11855,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11834\/revisions\/11855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}