Discovering the new Michael Moore on YouTube?

I personally enjoy a good doco, especially a Michael Moore one. Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine are all present in my DVD collection. In case you haven’t noticed, I also like YouTube. So this is an appropriate topic to discuss the relationship between the two. I feel like a lot of the blogs I have written relate back to YouTube. This is probably because YouTube has had such an impact on our lives, and provides a platform for all voices to be heard and to exercise our democratic right to freedom of speech.

YouTube has inspired a generation of amateur documentary an outlet to create and distribute their art which is often critical of the status quo. As Vicente states “traditional distribution systems tend not to work for the bulk of the feature film documentaries” – Consequently, we are now seeing the appearance of alternative distribution channels”

Sometimes amateur doco’s are even more accessible than documentaries screened through the mass media. It requires little effort to view a doco uploaded onto YouTube, and can be seen almost anywhere by the viewer at any time and also allows for instantaneous feedback for the producers future projects.
There are a range of amateur documentaries on YouTube, everything from this waste of perfectly good footage...




To professionally-made ones such as the following:

http://vimeo.com/groups/20591/videos/10179430


http://vimeo.com/groups/20591/videos/9818707

It seems YouTube provides a basis for anyone with an idea and a camera to upload their personal take on what a documentary is. They are able to bypass the ‘red-tape’ required for funding and distribution of doco’s via the professional film industry which often prevents would be filmmakers from perusing their craft. No matter what objective the doco aims to achieve, the world of YouTube will no doubts resinate with someone.