Premiering at Sundance Film Festival this year was Matthew Bat‘s look at peculiar story of the underground obsession of recording. The tale follows two men that begin to record their neighbors, until the whole thing becomes bigger than they could imagine. We called the film “visually engaging, with compelling interviews and heartfelt moments.” These factors “elevate this documentary into an ether of socially relevant content as an interesting take on how one persons argument can turn into a world of enjoyment for everyone else.” After a festival trailer, we now have the official theatrical one via Apple that can be viewed below.
In 1987, Eddie and Mitch moved into a low-rent apartment in San Francisco where, through paper-thin walls, they were informally introduced to their middle-aged alcoholic neighbors, Raymond (a raging homophobe) and Peter (a flamboyant gay man). For 18 months, they hung a microphone from their kitchen window to chronicle the bizarre relationship between their borderline-insane neighbors, accidentally creating one of the world’s first “viral” counter-culture sensations on the underground tape market. Revisiting these events through interviews and reenactments with the key players in the phenomenon’s development, director Matthew Bate has concocted a darkly comic exploration into the blurred boundaries between art and exploitation.
Shut Up Little Man hits theaters August 26th, 2011.