Lance Weiler and Stefan Avalos's quirky The Last Broadcast has been heralded as the first full-length film made using desktop technology and over-the-counter software. (See "Hollywood 2.0," Wired 5.11, page 200.) Shot on MiniDV, Hi-8, 8-mm, VHS, and 16-mm film, the mockumentary has cleared a row of film-industry hurdles.
But how's the movie? With its spooky X-Files-ish soundtrack, the cheeky whodunit isn't bad. It's an impressionistic yarn about some cable-access TV show hosts brutally murdered in the New Jersey pine barrens. To get to the bottom of the story, "director" David Leigh, interviews various personalities and sticks around long enough for the tale to turn delightfully sordid.
With pseudo news reports, press conferences, and video footage, the film questions our sense of what's real. "The media that should have been able to provide a pure truth has somehow become the story," says Leigh near the end. Exactly.
The Last Broadcast: in theaters this month. FFM Productions: www.tebweb.com.
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