The DIY Creative Class Goes Mainstream: The Neistat Brothers on HBO

I caught the new show from the Neistat Brothers on HBO On Demand the other night and found myself sucked in by the decidedly low-fi, autobiographical chapters. The show is appropriately named The Neistat Brothers, because that’s what it’s about: them. Them and their creative process, which ascribes to a total NYC/DIY aesthetic. Because of its use of indie music and first-person narrative, but also due to the DIY nature of the production, the show reminds me a lot of the terrific Four Eyed Monsters podcast, which was about the making of the DIY feature Four Eyed Monsters — the difference is, Neistat Brothers has no associated feature film attached. It’s just about the Neistats, who are fellow graduates of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces (class of 2006, in their case). Normally I’d find a show about a show — which is essentially what it is — to be solipsistic and navel-gazing, but the brothers work it out. (more…)