Spin (1995)

wow! i wasn't expecting a lot from this documentary since it seemed to deal with a dry subject, but it just sucked me right in. using only 'found footage' (satellite feeds from across the USA broadcast networks, which include on-the-fly footage and almost imperceptible ostensibly-off-camera conversations, all of which are not supposed to be recorded, let alone aired!?), Brian Springer has fashioned an eye-opening exposé of media manipulation and those ruthlessly efficient and mechanically precise 'spin doctors', around the time of the 1992 presidential election. some of the candid conversations and expressions caught unawares, are jaw-dropping, alarming, and hilarious...often at the same time. the way Larry Agran, a strong (initially, that is) candidate was 'blanked out' by the media to the point where probably nobody even remembers him running for the post, is spine-chilling stuff, all the more so for being non-fiction! unlike Michael Moore, however, there is no manipulation, or bias towards (or against) any party. what we see is so matter-of-fact, it makes you wonder if these people really belong to the human race at all.

this 56 minute film is a must-see for students of mass media, politics, propaganda, and American history. as per usual with this kind of 'subversive, controversial, potentially damaging' stuff, this film is not widely available. thanks to the wonderful invention called internet (possibly the only area where nobody has any real authority or monopoly on anything), i downloaded this from a site for free. three cheers for the last (relatively) untamed frontier.