Out of Print

"Out of Print" is an exceptional documentary. The film effectively communicates the changing landscape of the publishing industry, and it does so in a thought/conversation provoking manner. The narrative takes a topic that many media purveyors engage in daily and makes it simultaneously exciting and foreboding.

The pace of the film is absolutely engrossing as the director shifted between creators, publishers, and users. The documentary cleverly illustrates how different generations consume digital and print media. I particularly enjoyed the judgement-free juxtaposition of perspectives from the media-capitalists and Author's Guild. Also, It was thoroughly fascinating how students under twenty consume information (mostly short form), and, despite the sudden changes in the nature of consumption, I was left with the hopeful sense that the expression of creativity will still flourish in every form.

Vivienne Roumani weaves a very engaging story on the ongoing changes to how information is stored and transmitted. The documentary proceeds by interviewing key figures in the print and digital publishing industry, as well as scholars who have been studying the transition from book to digital. The line-up of interviews is fantastic, including Ray Bradbury, John Barlow from the Electronics Frontiers Foundation and Jeff Bezos from Amazon. Starting from the question "Is the book dead?", the documentary explores questions such as learning in a situation where access to information is essentially unlimited, on pedagogy, on copyright, piracy, and their effects (or non-effects) on author's willingness to contribute content. The various interview pieces are cut together in an engaging fashion, joined together by the narration by Meryl Streep.

"Out of Print" is an important, insightful, and timely examination of reading. From the very beginning of books as we know them to today's fast-paced, technology-driven world of e-books and Internet search engines, the film covers the history of the written word. More importantly, it raises the question of whether the way many people, especially children, read today (in short snippets instead of traditional book-length texts) is detrimental to society or merely an inevitable, not-so-bad step in the evolution of reading. The film is beautifully edited and thought-provoking. It would be an excellent educational tool for schools and libraries, and I believe its message would also resonate with the general public.

This documentary is a timely and thought provoking discussion of one of the major conundrums brought about by 21st century technology - namely, how to balance the unprecedented role of electronic media as an informational resource with that of the printed page as a medium for propagating our cultural heritage. The latter is nobly represented by the hard copy book and of course, by extension, the treasury of these - the library. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the printed word is THE medium with THE message. The written/printed text is the source to be cherished and worked with - the dog-eared/underlined text is to me the sine qua non of the learning process. Vivienne Roumani's film brings us face to face with the reality that our technology has taken us to in this regard. This film is a must for every thinking and most of all every "reading" person to learn from and contemplate. Kudos to the director!

Roumani brilliantly uses cinematic techniques to illuminate a decidedly non-cinematic issue. The future of our culture and of democracy are bound up in the future of the word -- written, in this case. Whether and how technology will either continue to spread knowledge and enlightenment, or drown them both in trivia, garbage and manipualtive distraction, is at the heart of this challenge. Out of Print does not give us answers because the answers have not emerged, but it raises the questions and leaves us profoundly shaken at some of the possible outcomes. A variety of perspectives are presented with no overt editorializing by the film. Non needed. The editing and cinematography make them speak starkly for themselves. And viewers should keep in mind cui bono -- who profits -- when they listen, for example, to some who see no reason to be concerned about what is happening to books and reading and learning and education. Do no evil, indeed.

This movie can leave you as unsettled as the most frightening vampire movie. The difference is that this problem is real.