Podtalk: Filmmaker Alex Winter Ponders ‘The YouTube Effect’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 12, 2023 - 8:56pm

CHICAGO – In a manifestation of his most famous catchphrase, filmmaker Alex Winter, also known as Bill of “Bill & Ted” fame, wants us to “be excellent to each other” when it comes to our interaction on a certain online video sharing website. He ponders all the implications in his new documentary “The YouTube Effect.”

Rating: 4.0/5.0

In a stylish and vital breakdown regarding the growth of YouTube, owned by Google (which is not well known), Winter tells a story of a noble 2005 origin aspiration that lost its way due to its sheer popularity, and is now dangerously used for propagating radicalism and affecting elections. Google is the number one most searched website in the world. Number two? YouTube … and they’re both owned by the same business. Using a stylish palette, director Winter tells a cautionary tale, that could explode into a “it may be too late” scenario. While Facebook and Twitter has been pilloried and analyzed to death, the societal breakdown may lie in the YT “algorithm.”

Written and Directed by Alex Winter
Photo credit: Drafthouse Films/Kanopy

Alex Winter has a duo British/U.S. citizenship, as he was born in London to an American mother and Australian father. He was a child actor on Broadway, and suffered trauma from an abuse occurrence while working there … he has spoken of his PTSD from the incident. He studied filmmaking at NYU, moving to Hollywood afterward. He acted and made films there in the 1980s, and gained notoriety as William S. “Bill” Preston (with Keanu Reeves) as part of the famous movie duo Bill & Ted in three films, including the recent “Bill & Ted Face the Music” (2020).

After he co-wrote, co-directed and acted in the cult film “Freaked” (1993), which failed to gain traction upon its release, Winter focused on behind the camera work with his own production company. Since the narrative film “Fever” (1999), he has turned toward documentaries, spotlighting the online community with “Downloaded” (about Napster) and “Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and the Silk Road,” plus docs on “Showbiz Kids” and “Zappa.”

Filmmaker Alex Winter, and as Bill (inset)
Photo credit: Rick Wenner/United Artists Releasing

In Part One of a Podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Alex Winter talks about “The YouTube Effect” …

In Part Two, regarding his origins in filmmaking and the recent Bill & Ted reunion …

Trailer, “The You Tube Effect” …

“The You Tube Effect” continues in select theaters and will be released through Video-On-Demand beginning July 14th. Written and directed by Alex Winter. For more on the film, click here.