A CREEPY GREAT MOVIE

on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 ·

I watch a lot of documentaries. For me, it’s all about storytelling. In this day and age of evolving media, we’re not just screenwriters or just novelists, we’re storytellers – across media.

These days, some of the best storytelling is happening in documentaries. They are fulfilling one of the original missions of movies – to take us to new places with people outside of our experience.

A little backstory: a number of years ago, my neighbor inLos Angeleswent nuts and began harassing and threatening first me and then my wife. It was frightening. I found the only way I could stop the threats was to turn my video camera on him. It stopped him…until the next time. The end of the story? He won. We moved. And I made a documentary called NEIGHBORS using the tapes I’d shot of my abusive neighbor.

Last week I saw an exceptional documentary called SHUT UP, LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE – a documentary about two young guys in San Francisco in 1987 taping the disturbing, expletive-laced rantings of their derelict neighbors Raymond and Pete. My movie NEIGHBORS is fine, but theirs is the GONE WITH THE WIND of nightmare neighbor docs.

Directed by Matthew Bate, SHUT UP, LITTLE MAN! amazingly tells the story from 1987 until now. It’s gripping. It’s surprising. It’s upsetting. It deals with interesting ethical and moral issues as well as the financial ramifications of what they did and what they’re doing now.

SHUT UP. LITTLE MAN! is a movie about an underground cultural phenomenon that is an absolute must-see. I warn you: it’s disturbing because so much humanity is revealed.

I’m purposely not providing story details, because the disclosure of information – when we learn what – is remarkable.

For more on THE DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION see my latest book: THE LAST WORD, Definitive Answers to All Your Screenwriting Questions, from Michael Wiese Productions.

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Categories: Lazarus Rising · Tags: DOCUMENTARIES, GONE WITH THE WIND, NEIGHBORS, NIGHTMARE NEIGHBOR, SCREENWRITING, SCRIPT CONSULTANT, SHUT UP LITTLE MAN!, STORYTELLING, THE LAST WORD, TOM LAZARUS

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A CREEPY GREAT MOVIE

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