One of my film production professors, Ben Steinbauer garnered TONS of critical acclaim last year for his SXSW hit Winnebago Man. This documentary is fun and funny... and insightful. It takes a deep look into viral video culture, as Ben goes on a search for "the angriest man alive" a.k.a. Jack Rebney, the man behind a 1980s Winnebago industrial video. Video: NSFW.
After months of trying to figure out how to get this thing distributed post-SXSW, Ben and his partners accepted an offer from Kino, and the film's theatrical release is July 9th!!! I'm happy I'll be in NYC for this, so I can smuggle myself into the premiere and tell EVERYONE I meet about it. It will be my 4th time seeing the documentary, a fact that baffles my friends who scoff at the thought of documentaries and foreign films with subtitles. But the thing is Winnebago Man is more entertaining than a lot of the narrative films I've seen in the past year. It's hilarious and heartfelt, and I can't imagine anyone not enjoying it. The problem isn't at all whether it's a "good" film or not; it's how to get bodies in the seats. How and to whom do you market a limited-release, independent documentary about a viral video that anyone can just pull up on YouTube?
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