Cartoon frog, online calamity in ‘Independent Lens’ season-opener
What can you learn from a cartoon frog? More than you might expect ... including how a character developed for amusement could be hijacked and recast as a symbol of hate. Such is the subject of “Feels Good Man,” a Sundance Film Festival-honored documentary that opens the 22nd season of PBS’ anthology series “Independent Lens” Monday, Oct. 19 (check local listings).
The project by writer-director-animator Arthur Jones and writer-producercinematographer Giorgio Angelini traces the surprising history of Matt Furie’s “Boy’s Club” comic figure Pepe the Frog, intended to represent male college graduates’ experiences in the “real world.” The image was copied by online communities that used it to convey extreme views, with Furie left generally helpless to reclaim Pepe from his unintended role on the internet.
“This is something that has never happened before,” Jones maintains. “The Anti-Defamation League never has declared a meme a hate symbol before. It has never declared a copyrighted character a hate symbol before. So, it was a process for Matt to figure out how to handle this. He tried to handle that via his artistic community first, then he tried to find a set of lawyers to enforce the copyright in a way that he felt was right for him.”
Furie notes the process confirmed for him that “it is hard to control anything on the internet,” with Angelini adding, “I think it is important to understand there’s no playbook for this. There’s not really anybody that’s had to go through what Matt’s gone through. It is admirable what he did to defend his work, and it is also a lesson in how we should approach media in the internet era. I think the takeaway is really that the truth of Pepe is that he is a symbol of love.”
A fan of “Boy’s Club” and Furie’s other work before they met, Jones says he wants “Feels Good Man” to serve as “a case study of how social media allows people who are very far apart from each other to actually coalesce and kind of build a community that’s based on emotions and grievance.”
“My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman”
Entertainers dominate the four-episode third season of David Letterman’s interview series, which finds him engaging in in-depth conversations with comedian and actor Dave Chappelle, actor Robert Downey Jr., TV personality and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian West and rapper, singer and songwriter Lizzo. (ORIGINAL) Season Premiere New
“Movie: Rebecca”
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“Movie: Cadaver”
From Norway comes this horror movie that takes place in the wake of a nuclear disaster, where a couple and their daughter are invited to a local hotel for a charitable event of dinner and a play, where attendees start to disappear. Gitte Witt, Thomas Gullestad and Tuva Olivia Remman head the cast for director Jarand Herdal (“Everywhen”). (ORIGINAL) Premiere
“The Queen’s Gambit”
This limited drama series stars Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Witch”) as a late-1950s teen who develops an astonishing talent for chess and an addiction to tranquilizers given to her by the orphanage where she was abandoned. Honing her skill to worldclass levels, she must conquer her personal demons if she is to conquer the male dominated world of competitive chess. (ORIGINAL) Series Premiere New