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Reviews
Out of Print (2013)
Provocative, insightful and respectful of the viewer's intelligence -- a look at a problem, the dimension and importance of which is only just beginning to be understood.
Roumani brilliantly uses cinematic techniques to illuminate a decidedly non-cinematic issue. The future of our culture and of democracy are bound up in the future of the word -- written, in this case. Whether and how technology will either continue to spread knowledge and enlightenment, or drown them both in trivia, garbage and manipualtive distraction, is at the heart of this challenge. Out of Print does not give us answers because the answers have not emerged, but it raises the questions and leaves us profoundly shaken at some of the possible outcomes. A variety of perspectives are presented with no overt editorializing by the film. Non needed. The editing and cinematography make them speak starkly for themselves. And viewers should keep in mind cui bono -- who profits -- when they listen, for example, to some who see no reason to be concerned about what is happening to books and reading and learning and education. Do no evil, indeed.
This movie can leave you as unsettled as the most frightening vampire movie. The difference is that this problem is real.