There’s a fine line between love and hate, and some Star Wars fanatics have crossed that flimsy divide with blasters a-blazin’ when it comes to George Lucas, the visionary filmmaker who dreamed up the franchise.

The upcoming movie The People vs. George Lucas gives disgruntled Star Wars fans a chance to vent their frustrations about the direction the franchise has taken over the years. Thousands of fans submitted video clips for the crowdsourced film, which will have its world premiere this March at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.

“We’ve taken great care to show respect for a filmmaker who continues to inspire generations, and who has certainly inspired us to make this film,” The People vs. George Lucas writer and director Alexandre O. Philippe told Wired.com in an e-mail interview after the announcement. “It’s really hard to imagine what our pop-culture landscape would look like without Star Wars . So our film is a love letter of sorts, but it’s a rather twisted one, as we’re looking at George through the prism of his fans.”

The fan-fueled filmmaking process, enabled by the internet and easy access to video-editing technology, made it possible for Phillippe and his crew to connect with legions of fanboys and fangirls around the world, then stitch together a crazy-quilt indictment of Lucas’ handling of the Star Wars legacy.





The movie looks at Star Wars as the cultural cornerstone it’s become, Phillippe said. “Is George the sole owner of it, or does it now belong to the ages?” he said. “And what happens to your role as a creator when your audience claims it owns your art?”

Fan debate over the extensive changes made by Lucas in special editions of the films released long after the original theatrical runs gets pretty intense in The People vs. George Lucas , Phillippe said: “As documentary filmmakers, we had to distance ourselves from the fact that we’re fanboys and fangirls at heart, to deliver an objective, uncensored, no-holds-barred examination of a unique cultural phenomenon.”

Crowdsourcing a ‘participatory documentary’

After launching a website in 2007 with an open call for fan contributions, the filmmakers received the predictable “hours and hours of webcam rants,” Phillippe said, as well as more advanced and creative materials: puppet skits, 3-D animation and claymation segments, grindhouse-style commercials, children’s drawings, vintage 8mm films, fanedits and other treasures. In all, Phillippe’s team gathered an astonishing 600 hours of raw footage with which to construct the “fully participatory documentary.”

“In many ways, The People vs. George Lucas is a tribute to the YouTube generation, which Lucas’ advances in technology helped create,” Phillippe said. “On a more profound level, it’s about how new media interacts with old media, as well as ownership and copyright in the digital age; and it was our intent from Day 1 to give the fans a prevailing voice in the doc.”

Phillippe, who runs his production company Cinema Vertige out of Denver with his

wife, Vanessa Philippe, called the South by Southwest film fest an ideal place for his movie’s launch. “The festival’s unique convergence of indie films, music and interactive totally reflects the participatory nature of our doc across various media and forms of expression,” he said.

The People vs. George Lucas has grown into something “much larger than a documentary,” Phillippe said. It’s become a “very powerful grassroots movement” fueled by amazingly supportive Star Wars fans, he said, adding that this week’s announcement about the movie’s SXSW premiere spurred a flurry of e-mails from fans around the world suddenly considering a trip to Texas next month.

“Because we only have so many screenings, my fear, of course, is that we won’t be able to accommodate everyone,” he said, “but that’s why we’re hoping for a solid worldwide festival run, followed by a wide release, to give fans around the world the chance to see the film. George triggers such strong emotions from so many people, and though I think we’ll find people responding in different ways, I personally hope that this doc will be cathartic on some level.”

Follow us on Twitter: @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.

See Also: