Open Source Cinema - An Open Source Documentary Film about Copyright

So we're here at IDFA - The International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam. It's a huge thrill, since this is the biggest annual meeting of the documentary community, and probably the most important place to show your doc - great audiences, great debates, great city. We've been looking forward to this for a long time!

The EyeSteelFilm posse has been incredibly busy here! Pitching at the Forum, presenting at the Academy, and of course the relentless hustle of having a film in a big festival. We're all tired but truly happy.

Caspar Sonnen who handles all things digital for the fest told me that he could hack me into the giant screen in Rembrant Square by the festival offices, so I took the liberty of making a guerilla advertising with some statues from Rembrandts Watchmen.

Six years of work is wrapping up tonight at the Festival Nouveau Cinema - we're launching the film out into the world! After almost a year in the edit suite, we've printed it to tape and are ready to show the "beta" version - the plan is to take it to whatever film festivals will have us, and continue the remixing before we officially launch the 1.0 version of the film. This explains the lack of download - we beseech your patience!!! Off for a final meal, a stiff drink and time to start the conversation.

PS - the blogging starts again!

After much aniticipation, a preliminary edit of the video is available. I'll be posting info soon about co-ordinating remix efforts, in the meantime, check out the vid (dont forget the full screen option!)
http://www.opensourcecinema.org/lessigfinal

Just in transit to AIDC - the Australia International Documentary Conference, held in Perth. Going to meet some other doc makers and give a talk about Open Source CInema. If anyone is going, let me know!
http://www.aidc.com.au/

The final shoot for the film is scheduled for January 31st - Lawrence Lessig is giving his final Free Culture presentation and we're recording it for the film and for posterity. If you're in San Fransisco, come join the crowd! Find out more!

Open Source Cinema and The Green Code Project are teaming up to make promo videos for this sustainability for documentary film movement. Find out more!

I'm happy to announce that we've partnered up with EyeSpot to offer web based editing right from the browser at Open Source Cinema. This is very cool and I'm hoping this will allow more folks to take part. It will be integrated more tightly with their upcoming re-launch on December 13th. Stay tuned! Meanwhile...Check out the eyespot page!

Brazil footage is coming online - so far we've got Sany Pitbull, a baile funk DJ, and Hermano Vianna, a musical anthropologist. Also check for some amazing slow mo capoeira footage. Gilberto Gil coming up!

Some interesting submission from Lixin, a colleague that worked as an associate producer on Yung Chang's Up The Yangtze, also produced through EyeSteelFilm. Lixin has been doing some filming of the DVD markets of China, both the legitimate and illegitimate kind.

When I originally visited China last year, I was narrowing in on another narrative line - Lessig was travelling through and I was a bit obsessed with the culture differences. Interestingly, China only created a copyright law in '98, after joining the WTO.

Last march ('96) I had thought this was perhaps too far off topic, until meeting Bruce Lehman. Lehman was Bill Clinton's undersecretary of commerce, and is the architect of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and the WIPO Intellectual Property treaties.

It was spelled out for me: In exchange for the implementation of US-style intellectual property laws and the joining of the World Trade Organization, US trade barriers against Chinese goods would be dropped. Quid Pro Quo. This is why you can't step into a store in the US without finding something made in China.

But, as almost everyone knows, this deal hasn't worked out. Walk down any street in Beijing and you'll see pirated CDs, counterfeit watches, jeans, disneyland...

Cory Doctorow explains why in the information age, you can't build an economy by making information harder to copy.

So the edit suite is humming - Tony behind the big G5, Brett (story), me, Ryan and Drew connecting via the 8 TERRABYTE Raid system we've set up. It's already full. Pulling together our stock footage, translating, logging and writing away. We'll post some stuff after our assembly deadline: October 9th. - Brett