Review of burntwire.tv

Launched on Halloween 2005, Burntwire brought together local filmmakers, artists, musicians, poets, and citizen journalists based in California. Members like Jose Hernandez, Colin Murray, George Brendon Fox VI, Tim Butler, and Aoka upload videos from the collective’s base camp in San Francisco’s Mission District, showcasing a variety of collaborations and independent projects ranging in subject matter from state politics to indie music to flat-out rants.

Burntwire features the group’s personal projects, contest entries, and anything else that has a video component to it, each one, varying in length and quality, provides related links and filmmaker information. There are also a few series and multi-episode features, though there aren’t many that have gotten past the second episode. The bulk of the site involves in-depth reporting on local issues, but there are also oddities like a 20-second poem

and recontextualized renditions of Beethoven’s Fifth, the collective even manages to poke fun at its self-important journalistic videos with occasional mockumentary political satires, like this video discussing horsemeat.

Check out the citizen journalism videos. If you want a felicitous look at the ridiculousness of West Coast politics, watch the man-on-the-street interview with Mimi Miyagi, former adult actress turned candidate for Nevada governor (viewers are treated not only to the ultra-conservative ridiculousness that comes out of her mouth, but a surprise nip slip as well).