Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan
is a digital refusenik. “I am constantly being asked to justify why
I shoot film,” he says in the new documentary Side by Side. “But no
one is asked to justify shooting digital.” Nolan may be
outnumbered, but—for now, anyway—he’s adamant: “I’m not going to
trade my oil paints for a set of crayons.”

The digital takeover of contemporary movie-making may not be a
hot topic around the American water cooler, writes Kurt Loder, but
in Side by Side it is revealed as a large and fascinating
subject—the most radical development in the industry since the
introduction of sound in the 1920s. The director, Christopher
Kenneally, is a busy young post-production supervisor. Two years
ago he was working on a Keanu Reeves movie called Henry’s Crime.
Reeves was around a lot for the post sessions, and he and Kenneally
began talking about the changes being effected in their industry by
digital cameras, imagery, and editing, and what they meant for the
future of traditional photographic film—if it had one. Reeves
decided they should make a movie about this. He would produce and
also conduct interviews with top directors, editors, and
cinematographers—something at which he turns out to be very
adept.

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