Title:
But I Love the Zine

Medium:
Documentary Video

Description:

This documentary video explores the world of zines as a popular and political art form which thrives outside the mainstream culture of commercial art and traditional publishing, and as an alternative to modern online culture. The documentary explores the definition, history, popularity, authors and publishers of zines, and the reaction of a modern art museum curator, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zine artists and authors publish their creations and become recognized without art galleries, book publishing houses, and art museums. They prefer making art that is tactile, using inexpensive technology to reproduce it, and transacting with Zine buyers at in-person gatherings, offline, instead of online. Artists and authors express themselves in illustrated, photographic, and textual documents on a wide range of topics, some very personal, without editorial gatekeepers. Zine lovers find, appreciate, share, and collect zines at well-attended festivals. Narration is by the videographer, Fiona McDougall, whose son introduced her to zines by publishing a zine about her reaction – to his first tattoo.