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June 19: RiP: A Remix Manifesto

Last Friday RIFF screened an episode of NPR’s show, This American Life.  Inspired by the article “The Life of John Smith” by Laura Blumenfield,  ”John Smith”  showed one life through the lives of many.

In one word: brilliant. Showing how the lives parallelled really revealed how similar people are. It had many messages, but mostly it was about life. I highly suggest picking up the DVD, or catching it on TV if you can. You can watch some of the first season on the site (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/TV_Season.aspx?season=1) if you want a taste of what the show is like.

On June 19, RIFF will be celebrating the summer with another screening. This time, RiP: A Remix Manifesto. A documentary discussing open source media:

“In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.
The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.

A participatory media experiment, from day one, Brett shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle.

Which side of the ideas war are you on?”

If you visit http://www.ripremix.com/screenings/ there is a map with the screenings, and you can find ours there. I thought that was fun.

When: June 19, 8:00 PM

Where: Fredericksburg Athenaeum (109 Amelia Street)

Contact: (540) 371-1311,

Tickets: ripremix.eventbrite.com