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

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Harrison R 04/04/2024 Barely remember it. Very lo-fi. Some interesting interviews. Definitely can't compare to literally anything anyone puts on Youtube nowadays. See more 01/03/2011 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. See more 10/10/2010 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... See more 09/16/2010 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. See more 10/27/2009 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. See more 02/09/2009 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. See more Read all reviews

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

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