STREAM NEW DOCUMENTARIES ON ANTS, SNAILS, HACKER GRAFFITI, THE SIMPSONS, AND MORE

Some exciting things to stream right now include a half-hour monologue on masculinity and abuse, a look at the difficulties of building public housing, and a survey of all the weird and wonderful Simpsons fan creations.

Dan Schindel

Some of the most intriguing nonfiction film work being done today isn’t coming out in any theater or dedicated VOD platform, but on video sharing websites. In this ongoing column, I’ll be bringing you some of the best recent web documentaries, video essays, how-to shorts, and whatever other cool or interesting work shows up.

This at first appears to be yet another YouTube video in which the creator does nothing but talk at the camera — the bane of contemporary social media discourse. But that’s not Oliver Thorn’s usual style, and gradually, you become aware of a purposeful twist of the format here. This is a riveting half-hour, nearly unbroken monologue on masculinity and domestic abuse, gaining impact from its refusal to make a cut (save one powerful solitary camera motion).

Filmmaker Oliver Payne delves into the lost art of ANSI drawing. In the early days of the internet, hackers stamped their pirated software (“warez”) with personalized 8-bit artwork. This digital graffiti developed into its own mode of communication across the bulletin board systems of the ’80s and ’90s. Made in collaboration with former ANSI artist Kevin Bouton-Scott, this fascinating overview of the subculture is currently hosted by Safe Crackers......

“The Bizarre Modern Reality of The Simpsons” by Super Eyepatch Wolf

John Walsh is an animation and games enthusiast with an evident and abiding love for the nitty-gritty of both forms, as well as the wider cultural ripples around them. Having previously discussed the downfall of The Simpsons, here he surveys how fans have made the show their own over the years through their own works, particularly memes. If you are at all a Simpsons fan, this will add at least a dozen different videos and publications to your to-do list. If you aren’t, this is still a terrific overview of remix culture and all its wonderful and strange (or both) facets.

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