Girl Talk once worked to push the boundaries of biology research, now it’s his job to crank up the music and make people dance, sometimes until the stage breaks.

His real name is Gregg Gillis. He was born in Pittsburgh, and until just a year or so ago he had a full-time job as a biological research engineer. Today things are different. He puts out records, plays huge festivals around the world, and spends most of his time on stage as a DJ partying right alongside his fans.

Gillis invites them up on stage, he's usually shirtless wearing sunglasses, to dance while he uses his computer like an instrument. He uses a laptop to rip and remix samples of different artists’ music, much of it well-known by groups like AC/DC, Nirvana and rappers like Jay-Z. Sometimes so many sweaty people rock out with him on stage, it snaps like a tree branch and takes out a water line. That very thing happened last year at a show in Nashville.

Girl Talk is a big part of “Rip: A Remix Manifesto” -  a film now airing exclusively here on The Documentary Channel -  but by no means is it its sole focus.

“Rip” is also about the history of Disney, and how its cartoon characters evolved; the history of the blues, how it’s made of with layers of culture and time; about copyright law and how fewer laws can mean more art and less “intellectual property.”

Director Brett Gaylor takes you all the way to Brazil to celebrate its thriving remix music culture. And despite the subject matter's heavy nature, Gaylor navigates the journey with ease. He relies on phenomenal graphic art, smart, well-paced editing, and high-energy music to keep the story rolling. In the end, “Rip” goes down as smooth and fun as any Girl Talk dance track.

So what’s Gaylor’s “remix manifesto,” or in other words, the public declaration he’s trying to scream out from the roof tops? He’s telling us that the past is always trying to strangle the life out of the future. We can’t let that happen. Today’s computer-driven art is the folk art of today. Let it live and let it breathe.

One way or another, this doc will get you riled up. Either so much that you’ll want to bust out your own laptop and try to rip and remix some music yourself. Or because you think these DJs are thieves and that you want to see them all  thrown in jail. Watch and find out what you really think about technology, law, art, music, and the future, only on The Documentary Channel.

- Gregory Crofton

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Nov. 11th at 8pmNov. 11th at 11pm
Nov. 30th at 5:10pm
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Dec. 24th at 3am
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