Stand By for Failure: A Documentary About Negativland
Nov 12 2022
•2h 39m
•Documentary
Since 1959 at the age of five, David "The Weatherman" Wills has been recording his life, self, and anything he likes (such as the weather, toilets flushing, and intercepted cell phone conversations) and broadcasting it to anyone listening. Together with childhood friends Richard Lyons and Mark Hosler they formed Negativland, which quickly became an absurd and noisy multimedia world without boundaries, ownership or privacy. Negativland's complex chaos of plunderphonics poses both serious and silly questions about the nature of culture, media, technology, control, propaganda, power and perception in the United States of America. Is what you're hearing and seeing real or simply familiar? The medium reveals that any message is all in our heads.
Cast
See allDavid 'Weatherman' Wills
Himself
Richard Lyons
Himself
Mark Hosler
Himself
Don Joyce
Himself
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