Our grotesque obsession with reality television is put to the sword in documentary American Cannibal: The Road to Reality. JACOB POWELL boards the train wreck.


THE CHICKEN or the egg? You know the drill, which came first, right? A circular argument that is well applied to the realm of “reality” television. Do the media drive public opinion/attitudes and push social boundaries, or do they simply reflect the state of the society which produce it? These are some of the big questions which are raised in this dark, mirthful look into the human psyche. In American Cannibal: The Road to Reality, virgin feature directors Perry Grebin and Michael Nigro cut into our societal skull, lift back the flap, and give us an hour and half peek into the workings of our collective grey matter.

Following the adventures of two would be screen writers, Gil and Dave (who together make up “KanDu! Productions”), American Cannibal chronicles their ‘almost rise’ and their dramatic crash’n’burn as they sell their souls for the lure of money, work, and hopefully some industry credit.

This documentary begins with the duo having successfully pitched an interesting sitcom idea that looks set to fly, Psychotic Episodes – a comedic mash-up of two different well known TV shows from the past. However, when the pilot doesn’t get picked up, the wheels very quickly fall of their hastily assembled vehicle. The boys’ agent, ever practical and ‘looking out for them’ states that reality TV is where it’s at if they want to get a start in this business. Convinced of this ‘truth’, in part by Dave’s very real need to feed and house his family, they put their heads together and bang out numerous far fetched ideas for the next big reality show to storm the networks. We go along for the ride as they head off, full steam, to pitch these ideas to all and sundry in the land where the money lives.

Eventually the lads get a meeting to pitch ideas to notorious porn promoter/producer, Kevin Blatt, of the Paris Hilton Sex Tape fame. Gil and Dave’s scorn and scepticism reach their all-time height as they throw out a couple of ludicrous and vulgar ideas – “Virgin Territories” and “American Cannibal”, both of which receive an unexpectedly excited hearing from Blatt, the latter going on to become a bona fide, money backed, pilot in the making. Thus begins the road to moral, social, and financial ruin which Grebin and Nigro document patiently from the background while the documenting is good.

Reality television. Has a bigger oxymoron ever made its way into the public consciousness? We all know that anything that makes its way onto the airwaves or our screens is setup, right? We know it’s there, primarily, to make someone, or some few, a huge stack of money in exchange for the cheaply bought “15mins of fame” that seems so essential to a significant portion of the populace, right?

Why is it that can’t we stop ourselves from watching this same shite, packaged a thousand different ways?

At the heart of it, I am convinced that people are voyeurs. I’m a voyeur, and you’re probably a voyeur too. There is something in human nature that is compelled by the best and worst in others. We love to watch and laugh, groan and critique, and damn if we don’t feel guilty and dirty doing it, but we do it anyway. The TV industry knows it all too well and is ready to make a few bucks off it. But who can blame them, as their rhetoric goes: ‘we’re only making what we want to see’.

Ultimately, American Cannibal is not so much a damning indictment of reality television, as it is a mirror for the audience to look in and see themselves, and the society of which they are a part. I’m guessing most of us would like to believe it’s the mirror which is cracked but deep down we know it’s the image being reflected back at us that is fragmented.

As Perry Grebin commented in the post-screening Q&A (by far the best of the three that I was present for this year), everything about this documentary is “meta”. It is a film about filmmaking, though for the small screen. It is cameras on cameras on cameras.

Ironically, I found that part of its reflective power is in the way that it draws a similar response to that of reality TV itself. We shake our heads at the ridiculousness of some of the industry types and their rhetoric; we cringe at Kevin Blatt virtually every time he opens his mouth and are secretly glad ‘we’re not like that idiot’; we laugh at the sad, desperate, celebrity wannabes who audition for the show; we sympathise in a patronising ‘I told you so’ kind of way as we see Gil and Dave’s friendship meltdown and their level of self-loathing spill over.

Although American Cannibal does not tread the path of worldwide politics, as do so many 2006’s great festival entries, it is probably the sharpest piece of social commentary I have seen this year and certainly the most interesting documentary. It isn’t even a bitter pill to swallow; there is too much humour and connection with the subjects and their situation to make it a less than enjoyable watch. My hat is off to the directors for keeping their cameras rolling and letting the material drive the ultimate direction of their film. Credit must also go to both Gil and Dave who are so open as subjects that you assume they must know the filmmakers personally. American Cannibal even leaves you with a cliff hanger ending as the titular reality show gets shutdown early due to an unexplained and serious injury to one of contestants.

In the Q&A mentioned earlier, Grebin told us that at this stage they (the documentary makers) were suddenly issued the “cameras off” order by the production crew and only found out what happened to the injured contestant much later on – though he wouldn’t tell us what, promising it would appear as a special feature on the forthcoming special edition DVD!

Whether you’re looking for a thought provoking social commentary, or a bizarre movie with plenty of guilty laughs, strange personalities, and personal tragedy that’s not your own, American Cannibal will likely be your cup of tea. I’ll certainly be buying a copy of the DVD. If we’re lucky it might even include the full story of Houston’s Labia...