A double documentary feature is one of life’s little pleasures. Not unlike pairing food with wine or choosing the best vice presidential running mate, serious movies that go together bring me inexplicable joy. Also, because I am penning this two days before Halloween, this week’s theme is batshit crazy horror.
I saw “The YouTube Effect” several weeks ago as part of the Dreamland’s “Film for Thought” series. Indeed, last week, Director Alex Winter took part in panel discussions at Boston University and Harvard University with disinformation experts, journalism professors, and others. Film for thought indeed. Ironically, here is the movie trailer, on—what else?—YouTube:
In the opening scene, screen text tells us that the company launched in December 2005 to over 2 million video views a day. This figure rose to more than 25 million views within a month. By 2020, YouTube had over 1 billion hours watched per day, with annual revenue over $19.7 billion.
We also learn that YouTube’s three male founders were inspired by the Internet site “Hot or Not,” wherein users would judge the attractiveness of photos voluntarily submitted by others. They wondered what would happen if videos replaced photos. Of course, now we know.
“Slippery slope” doesn’t even begin to describe all the rabbit holes, echo chambers, and on-ramps to radicalization that YouTube has since become. The film highlights one young man who talks about his own descent into the alt-right pipeline. Like so many others, he wasn’t aware how powerful YouTube’s initial algorithm was, let alone how much more influential it has become.
If you want to understand exactly how YouTube’s algorithm works right now, I recommend this blog post. Of course, pandemic lockdowns more or less turned us all into lab rats, sitting ducks, and Pavlovian dogs desperate for attention, affection, and connection—from which many are still recovering.
In any case, the film also includes activist, ethical, and legal perspectives about social media. Its hot take on PragerU at 35:27 mirrors those expressed last week by Vickie Shufton. In other words, PragerU (sounds like “Pray, guru”) is about as prestigious as Trump University.
“The YouTube Effect” also does a decent job examining the very thorny issues arising from Section 230 of federal telecommunications law. Focusing on people like Brianna Wu and Andy Parker, the audience knows their living hell could easily be our own but for the grace of God. Reasonable viewers also get that corporate liability protections should never outweigh social media companies’ responsibility to remove harmful content.
Drafthouse Films’ “The YouTube Effect” will sit with you for a while. Owned by Google, the online video-sharing platform is now the second most visited website in the world. And I don’t need to tell you which one is first.
Perhaps the real takeaway of “TheYouTube Effect” is a major extrapolation of jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron’s famous song “The revolution will not be televised.” Somehow, the revolution morphed into an insurrection, and the idiot box is now a handheld device. Go figure.
Unlike “The YouTube Effect,” “The Insurrectionist Next Door” showcases exactly one content creator: Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
Now showing on Max, this is Pelosi’s 15th HBO documentary film. Here she talks to a dozen domestic terrorists who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. Suffice it to say, the Pelosi effect is fascinating.
Can you even imagine seriously asking someone, “Did you go to the Capitol to assassinate my mother?” I can’t even fathom how unbelievably re-traumatizing this must have been for Pelosi. After years of her mother being repeatedly vilified in the House, followed by her father being physically attacked at home, there Alexandra Pelosi is, boldly going into the homes of J6ers with her handheld camera and asking questions. Even better, she pushes back on many of their fixed delusions.
The opening scene shows Pelosi’s cell phone as she converses with Ronnie Sandlin. Sandlin tells her he has been in solitary confinement for eight months. And he is currently serving a 63-month for multiple charges stemming from his illegal behavior on January 6. So why in God’s name do I somehow feel sorry for the guy?
My emotions spiral from here, as I watch and listen to all these tortured souls. Take Michael Curzio for example. In response to an off-camera question from Pelosi, he states, “It was like the herd mentality. It was like, you know what? We’re gonna go in there and be heard. They’re gonna hear us.”
Besides mimicking George W. Bush’s famous bullhorn speech post-Sept. 11, 2001, I can’t help but think Mr. Cruzio is unfamiliar with homo … phones. In other words, I suspect he believes a “herd mentality’ denotes a “heard mentality.” When you watch all 75 minutes of Pelosi’s doc, this possibility truly is not outside the realm of these insurrectionists’ average educational level.
Of course, everyone Pelosi speaks with is searchable on the absolutely brilliant Insurrection Index. Some have already served time, others await sentencing, and one is running for office in New Hampshire. Free advice to him: Live free or die, but maybe lose the denialism, revivalism, and entitlism.
Pelosi should win the Nobel Peace Prize for administering all these painstaking Rorschach tests. Clearly her mother’s daughter, she handles the insurrectionists with aplomb, moxie, and chutzpah. For a motley crew that croons along to Jelly Roll’s “Lost Cause,” pledges allegiance to Playboy the Beast’s “Stand Up or Stand Down,” and churlishly chants “Let’s Go Brandon,” well, redemption will take time.
Finally, and to be clear: I would never wish solitary confinement on anyone, nor am I an expert on its use. At the same time, I wonder if it has any measurable effect on groupthink. As well, while these two films do demonstrate the dangers of undue influence, they also offer the unique and urgent perspectives of each filmmaker.
So thank you, Alex Winter and Alexandra Pelosi, for a fabulous double documentary feature that reminds us about the importance of thinking for ourselves. And for creating two au courant films that I know will stand the test of time, bravo and brava.
