RiP: A Remix Manifesto

Brett's blog

So we decided to try something different for our New York opening (June 19th at 92Y Tribeca and June 22nd at Cinema Village!). Its something I always thought would be great - the version of Rip that you watch is unique to your geographic location. It always seemed like to crazy a challenge (how would you re-do the sound, output a new tape, etc?). But for the New York screening, I thought it would be worth a try. So…. at Open Source Cinema I created RemixNYC.

The idea is simple - download the CC licensed image of Times Square, add yourself to it (replace the ads with activism), and upload the results. Then I’ll animate the square filling up with faces. Are you game?

Go to www.opensourcecinema.org/remixnyc and add yourself! Everyone who contributes will get a Mouse Liberation Front membership - people who upload and show up in NYC will receive a Mouse Liberation Front t-shirt!

Also join our NYC opening Facebook group!. See you there!

I’m just back from a week in Poland - attending the Input public television conference, as well as the Planete Doc film festival. By a freak coincidence Rip played at both.

Most of my time was spent between the Marriot Hotel and the Palace of Science and Culture. The former was built in the 1980s, the later in the 1950s as a gift from Stalin. The are the 2 tallest buildings in Warsaw, and residents hate them both.

Unlike most festivals, I was here for a while, so I saw films. I saw “The Big Sellout”, a chronicle of the privatisation of public resources from London to Bolivia. I also saw Rick Minich’s sad but excellent “Forgetting Dad”. And I checked out “The Yes Men Save The World” which was a fun and prank filled culture jam. I met Mike and Andy and giggled while the festival made them crawl out of some bushes around the palace for a photo op.

People in Warsaw really connected with the film, which was fun. It played in 22 digital cinemas across the country, sold out the fest and aired on Polish TV over the weekend. There are now close to a thousand members of the Mouse Liberation Front in Poland alone.

Hey friends! Just a quick note to let you know that Rip is creeping its way to home video!

It all depends on what part of the earth you live in. Here’s why:

Because we wanted the film to get to as many people as possible, we’re engaging with all kinds of different distributors. Some who deal with movie theatres, some with television, some online, some DVD, etc. Each of these different distributors generally will work in their own country. And each of these distributors gets to decide how they want to roll the film out based on their own realities. Once we agree to work with them, we trust they’ll do it right in their country.

Note that EVERYWHERE in the world you can watch the film in chapters on this site already - we know that you want to watch the whole thing straight through, and in late June you’ll be able to do that on that site, as well as at www.opensourcecinema.org

In the US, you can get the film right now as a pay-what-you-want mode via B-Side. You can go to www.ripremix.com to download it right now! The DVD will be released by Disinformation in late June.

In Canada, the DVD will be released by KinoSmith in late June, as well.

In Australia, the film is set to open in theatres via Gil Scrine releases NEXT WEEK! So if you are in Oz or know some Aussies please spread the word on that, as a theatrical release plays a big role in a film’s life.

In Poland, the film will be released by Against Gravity and will have a theatrical, DVD and television release TBD.

We’re still waiting on what happens in the rest of the world, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted!

Having said ALL of that, we’ve released this film under a creative commons license, and that means that non-commercial sharing is OK, and some people are. So there are lots of ways for you to watch the film and we encourage you to do so! If you find it in some way other that those listed above, we’d really appreciate a donation, which you can make at www.ripremix.com/donate. Help us prove that experimenting is good and that audiences will support the films they like!

Finally, we’re still remixing the film for several film festivals, and we’ve got a new version of Open Source Cinema online that allows you to remix and submit new versions for inclusion. Help us build a new version at www.opensourcecinema.org!

Keep Remixing!!
Brett