A Hundred Dollars and a T-shirt
By John Oak Dalton • Jul 10th, 2007 • Category: Documentary, ReviewsComing to microcinema at the end of a long trail that included involvement in comix and minicomics and ‘zines, it has always struck me as odd that there has not been more crossover between these two aspects of DIY culture. Microcosm Publishing’s Joe Biel takes a stab at correcting that oversight with A Hundred Dollars and a T-shirt, his engaging documentary of the ‘zine movement.
Biel’s documentary is largely driven by oral history, as he interviews an impressively large group of contemporary zinesters, many circling the hub of the Portland zine movement (where Microcosm Publishing was located at the time), including zinesters I enjoy reading like Moe Bowstern and Alex Wrekk. We also get glimpses of zine conventions and a zine library, but largely, like zines often do themselves, the story is told through the personal experiences of the interviewees.
Thankfully the zinesters are, by and large, unique people with a lot of interesting things to say, which smooths over some rough spots in production value. Like the zines discussed here, the technical quality of the documentary varies widely. The video and audio quality is very uneven, and little b-roll is provided to offset what is essentially a long string of talking heads.
But those interested in zine culture themselves will undoubtedly overlook the technical shortcomings, and others will find an engaging primer in another aspect of the “Do-It-Yourself” culture. Hardcore zinesters will find much to enjoy here, and will undoubtedly want to nudge my rating a bit higher.
I hope Joe Biel continues to cross the boundaries separating parts of the scene, and that others follow suit.
Three stars.
- Director: Joe Biel
- Running Time: Approximately 70 minutes
- Score:***
- More Information: Official Site
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John Oak Dalton is a Community Television Station Manager by day, and a DIY acolyte by night. In the 80s he made Super-8 movies and his own basement mix tapes. In the 90s he hosted a cable-access show and made his own zines and minicomics. In the 21st Century he began working with grassroots video and microcinema and writing b-movies, and has more than a dozen projects on the shelf, on screen, in development, or in production.
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