What is The YouTube Effect? Starting on August 8, the general public has a chance to find out.
On that day, Alex Winter‘s documentary about YouTube’s culture and reach arrives on streaming platforms like iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and Vudu. The 99-minute film premiered at the 2o22 Tribeca Film Festival. A year later, it scored a distribution deal with Drafthouse Films, which brought it to select Alamo Drafthouse locations beginning in July.
The YouTube Effect features appearances from creators, execs, and reporters, all of whom offer commentary about YouTube’s massive scale and its undeniable influencer on global events. Figures who appear in the film’s trailer include Anthony Padilla (who Winter directed in a 2015 Smosh feature film), Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints, and several notable figures from YouTube’s corporate history, including Co-Founder Steven Chen and former CEO Susan Wojcicki.
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Thus far, The YouTube Effect has earned generally positive reviews. Natalia Winkelman of the New York Times wrote that the doc “assembles a fair amount of information about the impact of YouTube on society, but struggles to find something new to say with it.” A more favorable take from Variety‘s Brent Lang described The YouTube Effect as a film that “takes a tough look at the role that the Google-owned service played in everything from the Jan. 6 riot to the 2019 New Zealand mosque shooting by promoting election denialism and white supremacy.”
The political aspect of the film sets it apart from other projects that have explored YouTube and its culture. The doc’s title, for example, references YouTube’s effect on eyewitness journalism.
Winter, who is best known for portraying Bill S. Preston in the Bill & Ted franchise, has a clear agenda related to YouTube’s treatment of its most extreme content creators. In an interview with Ain’t It Cool News, he argued that Google and YouTube should be broken up.
“[Google and YouTube] are not some evil entity that we should just shut off and not let our kids get on,” Winter said. “I think they’re doing tremendous good and I think there’s a capability here for them to work out most of the most significant problems. Some of those problems are societal and they’ll never be able to work them out. But the scale is a problem, I think, and the monopolized aspect of the way the business runs is a problem.”
In addition to its streaming release, The YouTube Effect will continue to run in select theaters. According to the film’s official website, it has upcoming screenings in Vancouver and Toronto.
