The Digital Media ‘Zoo’

Lang alum Valerie Veatch presented her directorial debut film “Me @ the Zoo” at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. On Friday night she returned to her alma mater to discuss her work and screen her work at Kellen Auditorium.

Veatch, who co-directed the film with Chris Moukarbel, graduated from Lang with a degree in Culture and Media. Her film is, in many ways, an extension of the department’s curriculum, documenting viral celebrity culture in today’s digital age.

“Now for the first time we have the technology for making ourselves stars,” Dominic Pettman, chair of Lang’s culture and media department, told the night’s audience. “Thanks to YouTube, we can put it out to the globe.”

YouTube sensation Chris Crocker, best known for his 2007 viral rant, “Leave Britney Alone,” is the centerpiece of “Me @ the Zoo.” The two directors shadowed Crocker from October 2009 to earlier this year. Veatch calls the film Crocker’s personal narrative, as it documents his rural Tennessee upbringing, online rise to fame, decline, and his mother’s mental health struggles.

“His story hits on a lot of key points of maladies of media now,” said Veatch. “I think he was extremely flamboyant at a time where people were not representing themselves online and he took a lot of heat for that.”

Crocker cried when he first saw the film, Veatch told the audience. She added that he was “floating out in the world, and [the film] gave him a sense of context.”

Veatch also talked about the star whose scandals fueled Crocker’s famous rants, Britney Spears.

“I think Britney’s totally analog celebrity transitioned into a digital culture where we take our icons and deface them,” she said. “She’s probably the last celebrity of her kind with a totally analog upbringing.”

Veatch is still exploring digital media culture. Her next film project, “Love Child,” is based around the first legally documented case of video game addiction. A Korean couple used it as an alibi after their infant died from neglect while they played.