hurrengoa
a remix manifesto    Director Brett Gaylor appears before the camera in the first scene of the film. He explains that we're going to take part in an open experiment. All the film's material can be seen on opensourcecinema.org and we're invited to suggest ideas for mixing and editing. A large part of the film has been done like that. And the results? A highly entertaining film with interesting reflections about free culture and owners' rights. RIP! A remix manifesto. Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) the mash-up musician is the film's main character. Girl Talk takes lots of musicians' sounds and mixes them into wild dance rhythms. Girl Talk has had lots of problems because of his way of creating. He's been denounced and fined by many musicians and disco labels. In this film, though, we'll find out that the people denouncing may also have stolen from other musicians. Amongst other musicians, we'll hear that Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones stole songs from more than a single bluesmen. The reflections brought out by the film are based on these points:
1- Culture is always based on the past.
2- The past always tries to control the future.
3- We'll be less and less free in the future.
4- We have to put limits on the past's control in order to create free societies.
The film isn't only about the world of music. It unmasks the world of cinema too. Amongst others, we'll see the Walt Disney company's fierce campaign in the defence of owners' right and, later, when and where Walt Disney himself copied his characters from. And these things don't only happen in the world of culture. We'll see clearly the incredible results of the new ownership and patent laws of the last quarter of the 20th century. Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk) himself works in a laboratory as a scientist. He explains how in medicine and science private ownership and patents cause terrible delays and losses in the development of cures for illnesses. However, there are some people who fight against this. The best example is in Brazil: Lula's government has decided to leap-frog over all the large pharmaceutical companies' patents to provide a cheap cure for HIV-positive patients. This documentary leaves you open-mouthed with the many examples and contradictions it explains, and we also get to see the solutions that can be found. Amongst others, you'll see the man who created Creative Commons, which The Balde uses: Lawrence Lessing. We could spend a long time talking about this interesting subject. The best thing, when you've finished reading this, is to go to the link below and download the film. As well as being entertaining, you'll be able to discover the dark forces we mention so often. This may be useful.

http://films.nfb.ca/rip-a-remix-manifesto