BBS: The Documentary (2005) (V)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Jason Scott Sadofsky

Writer:

Jason Scott Sadofsky (writer)

Release Date:

21 May 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Cast

Christopher Allen	...	Himself
Cliff Barber	...	Himself
Ted Beatie	...	Himself
Phil Becker	...	Himself
Wayne Bell	...	Himself
Loyd Blankenship	...	The Mentor
Josh Brandt	...	Himself
Brandon Brewer	...	Sid Vicious
Ty Brewer	...	Graphic Violence
Scott Brinker	...	Himself
Timothy Campbell	...	Himself
Cheshire Catalyst	...	Himself
Steve Catmull	...	Himself
Vint Cerf	...	Himself
John Coate	...	Himself
Justin Cohen	...	Himself
Dale Coyner	...	Himself
Ted Decastro	...	Himself
Frank Deignan	...	Himself
Ryan de Laplante	...	Himself
Delchi	...	Himself
Matt Demicco	...	Armitage
Donal	...	Himself
Joseph R. Erlewein	...	Toxictuna / tty7 / n8ouz
Meryl Evans	...	Herself
Bruce Fancher	...	Himself
Robert Fowkes	...	Himself
Steve Garfield	...	Himself
Grandmaster Ratté	...	Himself
David Greenberg	...	Greeny
Eric Greene	...	Himself
Mark Grennan	...	Himself
Bob Hartman	...	Himself
Killa Hertz	...	Himself
Bryan Scott Hill	...	Himself
Jim Howard	...	Himself
Peter Hru	...	Himself
Jed	...	Himself
Tom Jennings	...	Himself
Jeremy Johnson	...	Himself
Pascal Junger	...	Himself
Philip J. Kaplan	...	Pud
Anthony J. Kay	...	Himself
Jeff Keegan	...	Himself
Jake Kouns	...	Zealot (ROC)
Jon Larimore	...	Himself
Frank LaRosa	...	Himself
Ken Larson	...	Himself
Chet Lawrence	...	Himself
James MacFarlane	...	Himself
Skip Mac-Stoker	...	Himself
John Madill	...	Himself
Anne Madison	...	Himself
George Matyaszek	...	Himself
Dave McClure	...	Himself
John Mehrtens	...	Sarge
Julie Mercier	...	Herself
Necromancer	...	Himself
Pete Nelson	...	Himself
Seth Oestreicher	...	The Joker
Daniel O'Leary	...	Himself
Harrison A. Page	...	Himself
Lyndon Payne	...	Himself
Tim Pozar	...	Himself
Steve Punter	...	Himself
Ratphun	...	Himself
Steve Richardson	...	Prefect
Mike Romero	...	Himself
Matt Rowland	...	Himself
Joe Russack	...	Dr. Strangelove
Ari Samson	...	Himself
Shewolf	...	Herself
Jon Shiring	...	Lord Soth / Slothy of iCE
Rick Siegel	...	Himself
Josh Sklar	...	Himself
Nick Sklavounakis	...	Himself
Soylent	...	Himself
Ken Spence	...	Himself
Anthony Stramaglia	...	Epsilon Process
Rob Swindell	...	Himself
Brad Templeton	...	Himself
David W. Terry	...	Himself
Deth Veggie	...	Himself
Frank Vest	...	Himself
Marian Volkman	...	Herself
Victor Volkman	...	Himself
Torray Wallace	...	Himself
Ed Williams	...	Himself
Christian Wirth	...	RaD Man
Peter Zelchenko	...	Himself
Count Zero	...	Himself

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Company:

Bovine Ignition Systems

Trivia:

Edited on three terabytes of USB 2.0 disk drives and Sony Video Vegas across 8 months.

If you believe The Internet is the beginning and end of data communication - you're wrong.

BUSY...

Redialing...

Connected:

I chanced upon this documentary very early in 2005, and thankfully Jason was taking pre-orders. I had barely read a few words of the description before I knew "I want this!! I have to have this!" - I was not really an old-school BBS user, my entrance was around the mid-90's and more of a witness to this communication phenomenon. For the first few months I admit I was something of a leecher but eventually came around to the rules of the game.

Phone line cut off and revived twice, massive debt to British Telecom paid off , I continued to log into to numerous boards, even calling international to try and find some specific doors for my own BBS. Eventually I fell into decent work, which not only paid me a healthy wage but killed some of the time I usually used to be online - an addiction finally under some control.

This box-set represents some of the finest points of the BBS scene - the interviews flow so smoothly as if everyone was bred to be in front of a camera, you feel like you're being talked too, not talked at. Ten minutes into first DVD you simply believe this is some high-level company production, the sheer technical achievement is astonishing - from the layout, to the transition effects, subtitles, addition of music, blending it all together - incredible, it's hard to believe that one man pieced all this information together. Granted, everyone involved deserves credit - and rightly so takes bold-text status on screen. You will appreciate every one of them...for their existence in your life.

If anyone has chanced upon this IMDb entry and believes a BBS is nothing more than a forum on a web-host, I urge you to study more of this subject, you will be pleasantly surprised.