Nothing So Strange
By John Oak Dalton • Jan 28th, 2004 • Category: ExperimentalIn the alternate history provided in director Brian Flemming’s Nothing So Strange, Bill Gates appears to get gunned down by Alex Hidell, a sniper on a hotel roof, who is then in turn shot by L.A. police. Was it the first volley in a class/race war? A police cover-up? A far-reaching conspiracy? This mock documentary follows an eclectic group known as “Citizens for Truth,” who try to hold their disparate band together long enough to find out what really happened.
Nothing So Strange plays like a Discovery Channel/History Channel/PBS-flavored documentary, but instead of examining the broader issues (which should include, in this tech-nerd’s view, what OS the world would be on without Bill Gates) focuses more on the interpersonal relationships in the group, particularly between a highly-organized earth-mother type (Laurie Pike) and a charismatic but volatile unemployed man (David James). This is where Flemming’s quasi-doc draws blood, as the group splinters and fractures, crippled by petty politics and internal strife. Spot-on characters and situations really bring this story to life, with nuanced performances all around.
Even more interesting in Nothing So Strange is how Flemming put the project together; starting with having the “script” being a lengthy Warren Commission-styled document that the actors used to improv from, on to gate-crashing L.A. police hearings and the Democratic National Convention to guerilla-shoot there—what Flemming calls “reality hacking.” Flemming takes the Haskell Wexler idea one step beyond, capturing some compelling footage. Realistic hand-held field shooting, documentary-type graphics, and an in-character DVD commentary track make the feature a complete package.
My only real criticism of Nothing So Strange is that after a lengthy buildup the feature spirals to a rather abrupt conclusion; surprising, considering the amount of improv footage Flemming reportedly shot, and the number of directions this mock documentary could have spun out towards. I left wanting to know more about the assassination, but even more so the fates of the various characters.
Why I made Nothing So Strange my first five-star review is not just because of the feature itself, but because of the completely developed cross-media platform Flemming created; this includes a handful of mock web sites about the assassination of Bill Gates and a “virtual 2nd DVD” on-line featuring additional commentary, footage, and the like, fueled by BitPass “micropayment” technology. Flemming also embraces the “Open Source” footage idea, making some of the raw shots from Nothing So Strange available for anyone to use in their own projects. To me, this makes Brian Flemming the first director I’ve come across to completely embrace and explore the microcinema ideal, and push its boundaries the farthest to date.
But regardless of all the additional trappings, Nothing So Strange is a unique idea and a compelling narrative, refreshingly done.
Five stars.
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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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