I attended a party at my step brother's house last weekend and met a fella named "Joe" who is a house painter. When he heard I was in the business, he began to tell me some ideas he has for movies. I thought to myself, "oh boy, how am I ever going to tell him his ideas are horrible?" How many times will I use the kiss of death phrase "interesting?"
So "Joe" tells me his idea and I could not believe it. It's actually good! What they like to call in Hollywood a "high concept," meaning a big idea with universal appeal. I tell "Joe" he's on to something and I'm interested. He tells me to run with the idea, and I tell him if I do, we'll have to sign an agreement. He agrees. I tell him stranger things have happened. Look at Barbara Streisand's hair dresser. He became a producer. Why not Joe the house painter...Now I have some writing to do.....

I just watched the documentary Shut Up Little Man! This is one of the best documentaries on Netflix. It tells the story of two hapless young friends from Wisconsin, just out of college and living in a crummy apartment in San Francisco. Their neighbors, Ray and Peter are raging alcoholics who begin to keep them up at night with their yelling and fighting. The two roommates decide to record these sessions on cassette tapes. After they share these tapes with friends, these recordings begin to have an underground life of their own as friends turn other friends on to them. Eventually comic books are produced, a play is written and feature films are planned by different fans of these recordings.
The film tells the story of what happens when individuals try to control material that they don't own, and how they struggle with copyright issues and deals that go south.
It's a fascinating and well made film worth watching. 5 stars