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DIY Or Die: How To Survive As An Independent Artist

Overview

DIY Or Die: How To Survive As An Independent Artist --- 2002

Michael W. Dean's documentary D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist is a fast-paced and idiosyncratic look at artists who have embraced the "D.I.Y." ("Do It Yourself") philosophy, ranging from musicians Mike Watt, Ian McKaye, and J.G. Thirlwell, filmmaker and photographer Richard Kern, cartoonist Keith Knight, author and performance artist Lydia Lunch, and transgressive circus artist Jim Rose to a number of little known sculptors, painters, and dancers who stubbornly hold on to their independence as a key to pure and honest expression. For its release on home video, director Michael W. Dean took the unusual tack of demanding that D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist be duplicated without any copy-protection codes, so that viewers can freely duplicate and pass his film (and its message) along to others, as long as they don't charge for the privilege. The DVD was released (under the title "D.I.Y. or Die: Burn This DVD") with no region restrictions or copy protectionand the director encouraged people to make copies for non-commercial use.