Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! pioneers the documentary "concert film" as a democratic and participatory medium. 50 fortuitous concert spectators, given cameras at random before a 2004 Beastie Boys concert at Madison Square Garden, have been birthed as industry cinematographers with the release of this film. Yes, their images lack formal polish, their pans and tilts bump and jerk awkwardly and their use of zooms is about as excessive as Bjork's 2004 Oscar dress. Yet, their aesthetics brim with a forceful sense of amateurish vitality.
Awesome, however, does not stray far from the Beastie Boys' big commercial industry status. Slick and meticulous post-production editing distinguishes this film conspicuously from formally experimental avant-garde traditions. In other words, yes, the film still manages to emerge as mindless entertainment.
Nevertheless, the decision to engage untrained Beastie enthusiasts as filmmakers creates a space for greater spontaneity within Awesome's somewhat formulaic structures. This clash of perspectives, between the film's spontaneous cinematography and its highly manipulated editing, restructures this concert documentary according to the spatial logic of a live performance. The sense of dynamic possibility engendered by Awesome's experimental aesthetics creates tensions within the film's neat and tight structure.
Further, this unique narrative energy suggests many relevant questions: does the film's engagement of concert audience members as its camera crew necessarily collapse boundaries between a live image and a cinematically mediated one? Perhaps it only complicates them. Further, if the majority of Awesome's viewers uncritically perceive its images as "truths" -- because random people film them -- might that generate greater ethical concerns that will continue to haunt the nascent genre?
Of course, keeping these complex questions constantly in mind disrupts the pleasure of viewing this truly awesome film. However, the film provokes meditation upon questions of genre, production values and authorship intentionally. Wouldn't it be a shame, then, if the Beastie Boys' first participatory concert-film opus failed in its efforts to produce more critically aware and intellectually engaged viewers?
Yes. Yes, it would.
