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   Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 02:13:31 JST Merlin Mann

   It's astonishing what Adam Curtis can accomplish by starting with nothing but archival footage.

   What a terrific storyteller.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_1985–1999:_TraumaZone

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     Antiqueight (antiqueight@mastodon.ie)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 02:14:47 JST Antiqueight

     in reply to

     @hotdogsladies If this is accurate it turns out I knew a lot less than I thought (and I thought I knew very little) about how the USSR was supposed to work.

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     Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 03:30:12 JST Merlin Mann

     in reply to

     • Antiqueight

     @Antiqueight

     Apparently was way worse than any of us realized.

     And the crazy part about the series, it’s almost completely BBC archival footage, and no voiceover – just LETTERS on screen

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     Antiqueight (antiqueight@mastodon.ie)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 03:30:12 JST Antiqueight

     in reply to

     @hotdogsladies Still, it's pulled FROM archival footage so I don't know if it's representative of people or places- but the scale of the series suggests probably is. And letters are no less subject to bias that voiceovers (or video selection). I'm over half way through the series now and o.O

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     Antiqueight (antiqueight@mastodon.ie)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 05:22:14 JST Antiqueight

     in reply to

     @hotdogsladies it's all so horrific. I keep thinking it can't possibly get any worse...

   • Embed this notice
     Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 05:22:15 JST Merlin Mann

     in reply to

     • Antiqueight

     @Antiqueight

     I mean. Editors make decisions and that’s how we tell stories. But I get you.

     I’m also just a big fan of footage people shot but never expected anybody to see or use.

     Still. Could have used more Yeltsin dancing.

   • Embed this notice
     Antiqueight (antiqueight@mastodon.ie)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 06:26:22 JST Antiqueight

     in reply to

     @hotdogsladies Nearly finished the Russian set. Slightly traumatised. But I'll add the other two to my "to watch" list before going looking for pink fluffy unicorns.

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     Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 06:26:23 JST Merlin Mann

     in reply to

     • Antiqueight

     @Antiqueight

     I dunno how deep you’ve gone with Adam Curtis’s stuff (there’s a lot of it), but at the risk of saying the most obvious thing imaginable, don’t miss “HyperNormalisation” (2016)

     https://youtu.be/yS_c2qqA-6Y?si=5KSKGogMUOOslOg9

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     Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 06:26:24 JST Merlin Mann

     in reply to

     • Antiqueight

     @Antiqueight

     I so agree.

     The way they follow people like the little girl and the abortion-seeking woman and the woman on trial has so much more impact when their stories are interleaved with other stories.

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     Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 06:26:24 JST Merlin Mann

     in reply to

     • Antiqueight

     @Antiqueight

     Also to your earlier point, I know he has a VERY strong point of view in everything he does (it’s specifically why I love his work), but I also think this one is unusual in how it frames what he has to work with.

     Which is a mountain of uncanny “b roll” footage that, in retrospect, reveals so much about the lives of ordinary people just trying to do ordinary people things.

   • Embed this notice
     Antiqueight (antiqueight@mastodon.ie)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 06:29:40 JST Antiqueight

     in reply to

     @hotdogsladies Yes - I know so little (it turns out) about the time and place that I have no ability to say how biased his work might be but good god, what those people went through!