"You're either part of the steamroller or you're part of the road"
-- Wired magazine, circa 1996
It was January of '96, and everywhere I went I kept hearing about this great new thing called The Web. It's gonna change the way we get information, they said. Change the way we relate to each other. It's gonna change everything.
I was 43 years old -- exactly halfway between college graduation and retirement. A husband and a father. More settled than I ever imagined.
I was ready for a change.
So, from the comfort of my New York City apartment, I began to travel the world, and invite myself into the homes of total strangers. Call me a voyeur. Call me pathologically curious. Most of all, call me a documentary filmmaker. But, hey, you raise your shades and I'll peer in.
So I followed the impulse, picked up my trusty camera and set out on a real-life Web search, not altogether sure of what I was searching for.
All I knew was there's a story lurking out there in the realm of these home pages, a story with meaty implications. Why are so many people willingly revealing the intimate details of their private lives so publicly? Is it a genuine forum for self-expression and personal growth or a more disquieting reflection of an attention-crazed, tell-all culture? And how does this new online world impact on face-to-face relationships?
Then I found Justin, and realized I'd hit on a doozy of a story, all right. A story that lead me to the very nerve center of the Digital Revolution.
Along the way, Justin inspired me to put up my own online journal. I called it The D-Word (in honor of the denigrating industry term for documentaries). I tried to keep it focused on the making of the film, now called Home Page. But, little by little, as I mused about my fascination with the Web -- and Justin -- it took a personal turn.
Not coincidentally, I began to turn the camera around on myself. And the story, inevitably, lead back to home.
Over three years later, Home Page is finally finished and making its way out into the world. It premiered at the 1999 Sundance and Rotterdam film festivals, and that summer was broadcast in Europe on Arte and here in the U.S. on HBO Signature. In November of 1999, it became the first film ever to be released simultaneously in theaters and on the internet when it opened in New York City, began streaming on IFILM and selling on home video at BigStar.com.
Calling it "groundbreaking," Roger Ebert made Home Page his Video Pick of the Week on his nationally syndicated tv show. Later, in the Chicago Sun-Times, he named Home Page one of the top documentaries of the year. Meanwhile, Yahoo! Internet Life listed the 46-year old Yours Truly at the forefront of a new generation of filmmakers (“The Net Wave”), and the editor of Video Systems magazine proclaimed that “Home Page may turn out to be a catalyst that will help reshape the practice of documentary filmmaking itself.”
Gee. My little handheld, homemade movie. A landmark.
While Home Page, the movie, continues to thrive both online and off, my work on it is dwindling down. On the other hand, my web homepage, The D-Word, is an eternal work-in-progress. All future projects will spring from the roots I planted here in my Web home.
As I continue on my personal journey, you'll continue to get a running account of my progress, direct links to the people I encounter and, hopefully, some insight into the documentary filmmaking process.
These pages began as an extension of the documentary. Inextricably interwoven. An ongoing feedback loop.
Now they're an extension of my life.
Copyright © 2001
D.B. Block. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2001 D.B. Block. All Rights Reserved