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[draconigen]

Furries and Gentlemen,

A group namend "FURSdoc" just contacted me on twitter. This group seems to be currently working on a project, which is aiming to produce some kind of documentary film about the Fandom some time. While work is still in progress, they've got two videos already up on Youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/user/Fursdoc/ ) and seem to randomly contact Furries around the world.

Now, after watching those two videos, I'm wondering how, or if to react at all. Maybe some of our experienced members of this board could provide their point of view, and whether to trust this group or not. And since that situation may occur to everyone else as well, I decided to publicly ask for help.

Thank you in advance.

Yours,
draconigen

[Cheetah]

I think the only true way of making an authentic documentation about the fandom is to actually go and DOCUMENT it. And not to make juicy announcements, or try to orchestrate something artificially no matter how much "unbiased" you try to re-create reality My biggest fear would be that they are really trying to justify the fandom ... instead of documenting it.

[VulpesRex]

I am very leery of any party who wishes to document Fan Activity for mass media; they usually concentrate exclusively on THE FANS - and usually on the most visually dramatic aspect of the fans - to the complete exclusion of the very thing which we are fans OF.

This is like making a video documentary of the people in the stands and, here in the USA, the people in the parking lot, attending a major sporting event; filming the people who bare their bellies and chests and paint their faces in the home team colors, wear crazy multi-colored wigs and generally look like refugees from a sanitarium - and never once ask about the uniformed people out on the field, or what they are doing with that odd colored or shaped ball.

If these documentarians and videographers are from within the fandom, try to pursuade them to document Anthroomorphics, and the use of intelligent animal characters in our culture, from entertainment to education to advertising.  Goodness knows there are enough visual references, many in the public domain, which they can use for such a project.

If these people are NOT "part of us", or rather are what General Fandom refers to as "Mundanes", then try to determine their depth of understanding on the topic of Anthropomorphics, and see how enthusiastic they may be about that.  If they know nothing or are not interested in that aspect of "Furry", then they are most likely looking for a Freak Show - and intend to use us as their freaks.  Such folks do not need our help. 

[Fauho]

I hope they don't take the dealer's den as a reference.

[Pony]

I made a post about this matter on three different forums.
Apart from the UK boards (the thread is now deleted entirely) the other two are less dramatic about the whole ordeal, with just a few minor concerns as seen back in this thread.

Personally I am very interested how it will work out. All we can do is speculate until it's done.
What would be really great is that they remain relying on our feedback all the way through. So if we see something that gives a wrong impression about something, then we can address them and tell them what is off about it or what should be done differently.

Documentary makers usually make their own thing and it will be a surprise up to the moment the final product comes out.
With this project I hope it will be different and that we do have something to say about it before it's actually finalized and released.
We'll see...