D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist

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Harrison R Barely remember it. Very lo-fi. Some interesting interviews. Definitely can't compare to literally anything anyone puts on Youtube nowadays. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 04/04/24 Full Review Audience Member This is filled with artists who talk about how singular and unique they are but they all dress the same, live the same, and say the same thing through the whole flick. While it touted as having a wide variety of folks that made up the interviews they weren't. The quality of the filming and audio were all over the place and a lot of the time became distracting. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Do yourself and skip to the last 15 minutes of this for some condensed motivational words and advice. Otherwise, spend the time being creative, not a spectator. 10,000 hours to mastery... Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member This was a watchable and mildly inspiring look at a few independent artists and their coping mechanisms for starvation. What is disappointing is that it didn't go beyond providing clips of a dozen interviews. A few, very brief tastes of artworks were displayed, but mostly we got philosophy from artists. Why not next interview an economist about physics, or a gardener about interior design? Fortunately, it is an even-handed perspective, but, unfortunately, the even-handedness clearly results from a lack of selectivity. Some of the artists were clearly hacks. A sampling: a punk rocker who sang out of tune, and a photographer who couldn't make money selling pictures of naked women. On the other hand, a few of them were quite good. Sadly, for most there was no sense of their artwork at all. The doc also suffered from a schizophrenic motivation. Was the point to inspire starving artists? To survey a few indies trying to make it? To compile a list of competing philosophies and attitudes regarding the creation of art? Or was it, as I suspect, to produce an hour of footage in the budget of the film's meager grant? This last would excuse its unexceptional quality somewhat. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Kinda started on the right foot, and then wanders off into D.I.Y. preach'n'dome... I felt like it would have helpted to get some reaction on the scene from outside of the scene. Some of the people in the independant world are independent because they are kinda crazy. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member This is very d.i.y. and if you're already an artist you may get bored but check out what Steve Albini has to say in the extras and ask yourself why Ian MacKaye doesn't age? Also, it's amazing how many women are represented here. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist

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