Keanu Reeves Drops Trailer for His Filmmaking Doc

While the history of documentary film is riddled with truly gifted storytellers, the genre has also historically attracted more than its share of dilettantes--folks with the time, money, access and curiosity to make happen the kinds of projects that most folks could only dream of.

And so we present to you the trailer for "Side by Side," the new doc from Keanu Reeves, which finds the actor discussing the art of movies with the likes of James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, and Martin Scorsese.

The film seems to focus on the fight between digital and film, a battle that has heated up over the past decade, thanks in large part to the advent of 3D technology. For all the great memories we have of watching film, it's amusing that this conversation continues to rage on.

As Cameron notes, you can shoot 3D on film, which immediate puts it at a huge commercial disadvantage. But more importantly, the rise in digital technology has "democratized" film-making, as George Lucas says. Before digital cameras came along, making movies was the realm of people with power and money who had to learn how to operate heavy and onerous machines.

Now any jerk artist with a vision and a few thousand bucks can make a movie. Whenever an artistic medium develops a new level of technology that a) makes more money and b) lowers the barrier to entry, the battle has been lost. We say this as someone who still buys vinyl, but has 50 gigs of music on a hard drive at home.

"Side By Side" premieres next month at the Berlin International Film Festival.

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