RiP - A Remix Manifesto

In a dance club, young people are going crazy to the sound of a thumping music mix. The DJ of the day is called Girl Talk and is a master of mash-up, the term used for mixing samples of existing music into new songs. In the process, the young artist brings problems on himself because of intellectual property laws -- publicly playing and reworking someone else's music is not free of charge. Director Brett Gaylor completely disagrees with these copyright laws: "That means my favorite artist is a criminal and you should not be watching, because I'm not allowed to use these songs in my film." Gaylor's calculation of what one of Girl Talk's songs would end up costing in copyright fees is shocking. No one could come up with that kind of money. With this contemporary, cinematic manifesto, Gaylor wants to stand up for everyone who uses existing music to create something new. The fact that Gaylor is making a mash-up himself -- in the form of this documentary -- exposes him to comments like "That's fantastic, and totally illegal!" He intersperses interviews with artists, lawmakers, companies, and consumers with animation, archive footage, and collages. His quick and varied editing has the feel of a music video, alternating split screens with footage of people dancing in slow motion.