Whaaaaaaat?!you gotta be kidding me wrote:Everything I've read about Wiseman makes him sound like a total slime, and this latest nonsense cements my opinion.
Of course he wants people to see them. That's why ALL of them have aired on PBS channels across the country upon their release. And many libraries - public institutions, after all - did have VHS copies of his films on hand.you gotta be kidding me wrote:His films were unavailable to the general public for DECADES and now they're only available as outrageously overpriced DVD-Rs (not even advertised as such)... doesn't he want people to see his "socially conscious" work? I guess not.
The rights 'issue' is that Wiseman, being one of the only filmmakers around to own the rights to all of his films, also had as his only real source of income rentals and purchases of his back catalog. It's not as if the guy is some kind of greedy Scrooge character; he's spent four decades making films that have very little commercial potential and he's never compromised his artistic integrity in securing funding or distribution. If anything, he's a model of what more filmmakers should aspire to. If it means the films are on DVD-R rather than some more "official" form of distribution, then so be it. The films exist, that's the important thing.you gotta be kidding me wrote:Unless there are some weird rights issues or other legal reasons for all of this, there's no excuse. But, you know, this is fairly typical documentarian hypocrisy as far as I can tell.
I don't know what to say about your last comment about "typical documentarian hypocrisy." If there's any documentary filmmaker I'd attack for crass commercialism and apparent hypocrisy, it'd be Robert Drew for putting that ridiculous "RD" logo at the corner of the screen on the Primary DVD - which, because I can't stop being astonished by how terrible it looks and how stupid and unnecessary it is, makes trying to watch the film itself for me almost impossible.