Look Back, Don't Look Back

This movie, along with many other short films (Herd for starters) make a compelling case that distribution for short films really sucks in this country. There needs to be some kind of Spike and Mike for this, because blurry, audio only sreaming video from iFilm and atomfilms just won't cut it in the long run. I saw this at the 2000 SXSW film festival. As the title implies, this is a parody of/homage to D.A. Pennebaker's classic 1967 documentary Don't Look Back, which chronicled Bob Dylan on tour. In this short (part mockumentary, maybe part truth) two student filmmakers try to get in contact with Bob Dylan for an interview for a short film they're making (the same one we're watching) with predictably dismal results. This is a very self-referential movie: we get to see the directors on the phone negotiating with Bob Dylan's son, etc. Along the way, they visit places Dylan visited in the movie, meet D.A. Pennebaker, and finally go to a Dylan concert. This movie is a fine comedy (although the sound is somewhat sucky, as with so many low-budget documentaries), completed with money from the Texas Filmmaker's Production Fund or whatever they're called, best appreciated by those who've seen the movie. Pennebaker, who was in attendance, thought it was pretty funny too.