Product Details

• Actors: Someguy
• Directors: Andrea Kreuzhage
• Format: Dolby, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: andrea-k productions
• DVD Release Date: January 13, 2009
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001P2I8S8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,140 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

1000 Journals is a film about people whose lives are touched by 1000 traveling journals. These blank journals were released into the world in the summer of 2000, by Someguy, a San Francisco based artist. Some people found a journal, or got it from a friend or stranger. Some signed up on the web and received it in the mail. Some wrote in them, others doodled, pasted in photographs, or added artworks. Some kept them. Some passed them on. There are no rules, and no one really monitors these journals and their movements. And yet, they are connecting tens of thousands of people worldwide, provoking and inspiring them. In September 2003, one of the 1000, number 526, returned to Someguy, filled. What happened to the other 999? This film tells their stories. 1000 Journals shares the experience of their worldwide journeys, and chronicles the self-governed collaboration of thousands of random people who have added to this global 'message in a bottle.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating story of collaborative art, February 22, 2009

By 

QuinnCreative "-Q" (Glendale, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 1000 Journals (DVD)

Andrea Kreuzhage checked into the 1000 Journal Project and became fascinated with it before she met Someguy, the project's originator. Her documentary is an amazing story of collaborative art with all the tears, joys and stories intact.

Here's the story: In June of 2000, a graphic designer, known in this project as Someguy, had an idea for a collaborative art project. He would distribute 1,000 blank journals, allow people to fill them in any way they wanted to, and return them to him.

According to Someguy's story, "In August of that year, I began distributing blank journals around San Francisso. I left them in bar bathrooms, at cafes, and on the bus, and gave them to friends and strangers. Each journal contained instructions inviting participants to contribute something to the journal, and then to pass it along to someone else."

He had no idea if the journals would ever return. But he started a website on which people could post their journal artwork and sign up to have a journal sent to them when they returned. The documentary tracks the story of the journals that have been returned or have known whereabouts.

People who found the books eagerly looked forward to leaving their mark. Faced with filling a blank page, some filled it eagerly, some couldn't decide how to fill it. Many had trouble sending the journal onto the next person. (Artists frequently have trouble letting their work go into the world without adult supervision.)

Because the books traveled to every state in the union and into 53 countries worldwide. People began to add rules to the journals. "Finish them in 24 hours and pass them on." "You have two weeks." And then, some artists decided they didn't like the writing of others, painted over the pages and added their own artwork. Some people who got the journals wrote angry, damaging entries to previous artists and sent the book back to the original artist. The documentary covers it all--the joy, the sadness, the weird rationalizations.

You meet the woman whose husband died the day she received the book, and the memorial she made of her page. You see the book having cross-cultural stumbles and snags. You visit with the woman who received the book back, and the cruel drawings of her that a collaborative art project risks.

The documentary is best savored with the book, but it does a great job of exploring our culture and the control we want over our writing and our lives.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding documentary, February 7, 2009

By 

Tony (Port Ludlow, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 1000 Journals (DVD)

If I call this film "inspirational" I hope you won't think it's somehow not entertaining. It's extremely entertaining, a good story, well told, populated with interesting characters and fascinating scenes. And blissfully, it's not all vanilla and upbeat either -- as you would expect, some of the people who got their hands on these journals didn't necessarily like some of the entries that came before them. From the haunting music of the opening credits to the vivid pages of the journal pages themselves, it's a delight from start to finish. One of the best documentaries I saw last year.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an experiment, and YOU are part of it, January 28, 2009

By 

Pat Mc Mahon (Los Angeles, Ca.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1000 Journals (DVD)

This is the message Brian (Someguy) sent into the world by way of 1,000 hardcovered, black art journals. How many, after the full 1,000 went out into the world, came back? How long did it take before he began receiving any completed journals at all? How could he afford to do such a thing?
With clear instructions to create a personal art work on one or two pages (called a "spread"), Brian left "his" journals in public places. Bus stops, restaurants, busses themselves. Any place his day took him. This film documents the journals and the people who received them. Some people kept them for a year. Some kept them longer. Some journals have not returned at all.
Andrea Krueghage's film documents the people who received them, and someguy who conceived and carried out the experiment. Now, an exhibit at MOMA in San Francisco, do NOT miss this extraordinary film. I dare you to sit through it and not need kleenex. What do you suppose would happen if someguy or somegal sent 1,000 journals into the world and asked people to write their formula for peace in its pages? Would YOU be able to "Pass it on" or return it to the originator?