A leading documentary film festival asks ‘What’s… | Little White Lies

Festivals

A lead­ing doc­u­men­tary film fes­ti­val asks What’s in a meme?’

19 May 2020

Words by Adam Woodward

Two young men sitting on a sofa, one wearing a Rukowtski T-shirt and the other wearing a red cap. They are holding a bottle of alcohol.
Two young men sitting on a sofa, one wearing a Rukowtski T-shirt and the other wearing a red cap. They are holding a bottle of alcohol.
This year’s Thes­sa­loni­ki Doc­u­men­tary Fes­ti­val will explore the ori­gins and evo­lu­tion of an inter­net phenomenon.

Whether you active­ly par­tic­i­pate in the mak­ing of them or you’re sim­ply an idle con­sumer, it’s hard to avoid memes these days. But what do we actu­al­ly know about this omnipresent inter­net phe­nom­e­non? The pro­gram­mers of the 22nd Thes­sa­loni­ki Doc­u­men­tary Fes­ti­val have ded­i­cat­ed an entire strand to this very ques­tion, and it promis­es to be an eye-open­ing experience.

Since the term was coined in 1976 by biol­o­gist Richard Dawkins in his book The Self­ish Gene’, the notion of what con­sti­tutes a meme has evolved rapid­ly. The TDF’s trib­ute will attempt to show how this unique­ly mod­ern means of human com­mu­ni­ca­tion has infil­trat­ed our dai­ly lives – for bet­ter and for worse – and what we talk about when we talk about memes.

There’s Lisa Mandelup’s Jaw­line, which looks at what hap­pens when a teenag­er becomes a social media super­star, and Matthew Bates’ Shut up Lit­tle Man takes things way back to 1987, aka Before The Inter­net, telling the sto­ry of how two friends acci­den­tal­ly cre­at­ed one of the first pieces of viral pop culture.

Else­where, film­mak­er Ben Stein­bauer goes in search of the leg­endary Win­neba­go Man”, unwit­ting star of one of the most watched online videos ever, while Mat Hames’ The Meme Machine traces the ori­gin of memes via inter­views with lin­guists, sci­en­tists and peo­ple who have gone viral”.

The 22nd TDF takes place online from 19 – 28 May, pre­sent­ing 210 doc­u­men­taries from all over the world, plus orig­i­nal trib­utes and a series of live open dis­cus­sions. Reg­is­ter at film​fes​ti​val​.gr to watch the doc­u­men­taries for free.

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