I found this tape near Crystal Palace Park. No label apart from the genric “LuckyStar” Sleeve.
The tape turned out to be recorded directly from the BBC, starting with the second half of an Adam Curtis documentary.
Since this is the first proper Video Dumpster Dive, I was nervous about providing commentary, no matter what the tape was. I though perhaps we’d find some funny commercials, or maybe a movie .
In a way Adam Curtis is probably the worst-case scenario for this– his documentary style is extremely information-dense and there’s a lot to react to. He’s a tough filmmaker to deal with. He jumps from one idea to the next, apparently confident in the conceptual leaps and connections he’s making, but the audience is left scratching their heads and wondering where it is all going. The most frustrating aspect for me is the tone in which its all delivered. He wants to play the role of Morpheus to the audience’s Neo, shaking the sheeple out of their dazed complacency. To a conspiracy-minded viewer this might work, but from me it tends to earn gigantic eye rolls– which is too bad, since Curtis does occasionally make some pretty interesting points.