Well, probably not really the first, but a while ago I was informed that there was a BBS Documentary that came out before mine. (I thought I was the only one.) Of course, it’s 8 minutes long, interviewed about 6 people, and has music that sounds like you’re being offered real estate with no money down, but come on, it was 1992 and we were editing using steam engines.

Actually, they used an Amiga with a NewTek Video Toaster, one of the greatest pieces of home computer technology ever made. Once that thing hit the market, everything changed for video editing and production. And, ostensibly, for Kiki Stockhammer. (Look it up.)

Anyway, someone put this documentary up on youtube, so here comes my first youtube link:

I don’t really have any “factual” corrections with this production; it’s all basically correct, if with a Canadian bent. The vintage shots of a commercial-sized BBS enterprise and an actual early 1990s computer store are the real winners here, as well as a straight-on shot of a Courier HST modem. I don’t feel in the least bit like “my” territory was covered here, and the BBS Documentary, being roughly 41 times the length of this production, had room to go in other directions.

Note, also, that there are things in there I specifically didn’t want to do, things like having shots of people typing zombie-like at computers, scrolling shots of screens with no information on them, and a narrator. Could you imagine 5 and a half hours of that?

The director of this project now works for Discovery Canada, so everybody wins! Except for that music guy. He loses.

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