SF360 Film+Club: RIP July 23, 2009

The San Francisco Film Society’s acclaimed SF360 Film+Club, a bimonthly social screening series, returns with a special edition double-barreled mash-up program featuring the documentary RiP: A Remix Manifesto directed by Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor and a live set by mash-up VJ legends Eclectic Method, Thursday, July 23 at 7:00 pm at Mezzanine (444 Jessie Street at Mint).

RiP 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 former Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow also add their perspectives to the mix. Creating a participatory media experiment from day one, Gaylor 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, Gaylor and Girl Talk invite an impassioned dialogue about current copyright, fair use and intellectual property laws and make a deeply provocative case for the ideas of Free Culture. Which side of the ideas war will the viewer line up on? Photographed by Mark Ellam. 80 min.

RiP will be presided by a short video produced by Creative Commons that explains their aims, methods of work and services for the promotion of creative sharing and ease of copyright use.

After the screening, Eclectic Method—arguably the highest profile VJs in the world—will present a live set of video mash-ups that are sure to boggle the mind and move the booty. Eclectic Method helped pioneer the emerging art of audio-visual mixing. The trio’s audio-visual mash-ups feature television, film, music and video game footage sliced and diced into blistering, post-modern dance floor events. It’s a cyclone of music and images and a real-time subversion of technology and media performed live on video. Eclectic Method also claims one of the freshest live shows in music. The group has performed at such popular events as Glastonbury, The Festival, Winter Music Conference, BBC’s One Big Weekend and at several major film festivals. Needless to say, it’s no longer just a Method—it’s a movement.

Doors open at Mezzanine at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $12/SFFS year-round members and $17/general, available www.trilogyticketing.com/sffs. Must be 21+ to attend.

SF360 Film+Club was chosen the Best Dance-Floor Flick Fix, by the editors of the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay 2008 edition, who wrote, “Our favorite SF360 shindig is its monthly SF360 Film+Club night at Mezzanine, which screens underground films to a room of intoxicated cinephiles.”

For more information visit http://www.sffs.org/screenings-and-events/sf360-film+club.aspx.

SF360 Film+Club: RiP is copresented by Creative Commons.

Official Website: http://www.sffs.org/screenings-and-events/sf360-film+club.aspx