Only a handful of people were in attendance for last night’s world premiere of blogger/filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake’s new documentary Indie Film Blogger Road Trip at NYC’s Anthology Film Archives. Apparently most fans and writers of blogs had better things to do, such as read and write posts on the internet. Because really, what is the point of watching a film about writers about films? The only thing more unnecessary and inwardly spiraling — obviously I’m guilty of it here — is blogging about a film about bloggers about film.

Even with the film blogosphere’s reputation for insularity Ekanayake’s doc has no purpose, because its subject matter and content are already well documented on blogs. And anything new that might be discussed, any new questions that might be raised would also be more appropriately written about on the web. The film’s largest offense, though, is that it doesn’t even seem to have an intended purpose. It does not actually attempt to offer anything new to the discourse on film blogging. Nor does it have any sort of cohesive thesis regarding any preexisting discourse. The doc is simply a series of long, mostly uncut interviews with film bloggers. It’s not even necessarily a sufficient profile of the film blog community, in a “Meet the Bloggers” kind of way.

As far as Ekanayake’s skill as a filmmaker, there’d be too much to itemize in criticizing his lack of such (though Michael Tully does a nice job). So, let me just put it this way: in terms of the subject matter, you’re better off watching uncut tapings of panel discussions, any of which are likely better shot and edited and certainly more focused and compelling than Indie Film Blogger Road Trip. And if you’re really curious about what’s said specifically in the film, you’re better off hoping that Brian Geldin (aka The Film Panel Notetaker) took notes. Although, since he’s one of the film’s interview subjects and has already given his subjective reaction to the film, it’s improbable that he’s going to do that.

Of course, there really isn’t a lot that’s worth quoting from the film, anyway. This may partly be my own subjective attitude on the issue of talking about blogging, which I believe to be an irrelevant distraction from actually talking about film, which is arguably already inessential in the grand scheme of life (any blogger whose word usage has been the focus of criticism on another film blog can surely see the meaninglessness of criticism in general, let alone criticism of criticism specifically, even if he might be hypocritical in stating this).

The most interesting interview in the film is with ShortEnd Magazine’s Noralil Ryan Fores, who discusses the significance and minority position of female film bloggers. Part of what makes her segment appealing is that, of all the interviewees, she seems to be the one least interrupted by the loudly self-absorbed Ekanayake (probably because just before her interview, in the film’s most egoistical segment, the filmmaker is seen being interviewed by her). Also, her topic appears strangely contradicted by the documentary itself, since Ekanayake features nearly as many women bloggers as men. And finally, Fores’ statements are of particular note to this blog because she mostly gushes about Karina Longworth, who is made an example of in the consideration of the “female blogger fetish,” which she believes is equivalent to the idea of a woman in the guys’ locker room. But aside from analyzing why readers and peers alike “fall in love with Karina,” Fores also offers some engaging thoughts regarding the difference between film coverage, particularly interviews, by female bloggers and male.

Still, all Ekanayake’s interview with Fores does is make me want to read ShortEnd, which I guess may be part of the point (and pointlessness) of the documentary. Especially with the interviews with Horror101’s Armando Valle and Women & Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein, Indie Film Blogger Road Trip comes off as merely a series of advertisements for a few blogs that I probably should have known about beforehand anyway. But since Ekanayake already has the obligatory “blogs I read” links list on his own blogs, he couldn’t have possibly meant to waste our time with a film that solely functions as a cinematic equivalent of those recommendations. Then again, he does also ask a number of his subjects to list the websites they regularly read, which is likewise useless since anyone can find that information on the individuals’ blogs.

Also teetering on complete redundancy is the film’s function as a “Meet the Bloggers” series of profiles. As is mentioned in the documentary, bloggers are very different than traditional journalists in that their lives and personalities are, for the most part, experienced by reading their blogs. They have photos, link to their personal social networking site profiles and are often recognizable to readers when out in public (one interviewee points out that sometimes the recognition is akin to seeing a celebrity). On the other hand, some bloggers do have online personas that aren’t exactly identical to their real-life selves. In a post-screening discussion, Ekanayake admitted that he’d expected indieWIRE’s Anthony Kaufman to be more difficult than he ultimately was. And anyone familiar with the snarky wit of Stu VanAirsdale (especially since he began writing at Defamer) might either be disappointed or simply surprised by his composure in the movie, if they weren’t aware beforehand that he’s truly as polite as he is intelligent in person. But vice versa, someone attracted to VanAirsdale by way of this interview might not exactly appreciate his current blogging style.

If I had to pick out Indie Film Blogger Road Trip’s biggest failure in terms of its apparent intent, I’d again point out how small the audience was at the film’s premiere. Never mind that many of its target audience, presumably other film bloggers and maybe their readers, were absent. Never mind that many of its own interviewees, notably those who live and work in New York City, were absent. Both on and off screen, Ekanayake addresses the potential of blogs to be promotional tools for filmmakers. Yet, despite the fact that my days are spent blogging and reading (or at least skimming through) tons and tons of other blogs, I learned of this premiere only by being assigned to cover it. That is to say there was not significant enough promotion to make me aware of this film let alone interested in seeing it, and I’m sure that’s part of the reason Anthology’s large auditorium was mostly empty (also, Anthology’s calendar didn’t even mention the screening). And for one reason the lack of attendance was a shame, because the main attraction was actually preceded by a very enjoyable short by blogger Kevin B. Lee — of course, one that can be viewed online.

If I had to pick one element of Indie Film Blogger Road Trip that actually succeeds, it’s in the (unintentionally?) meta way it concludes with Kaufman reading from his very first post on his indieWIRE blog. Note the way the following words may be put into the mouths of any person curious about bloggers that could potentially stumble upon Ekanayake’s documentary, whether they’re referring to the concept of blogging or the film itself: “New to the blogging universe, I would initially say that the whole thing seems like a waste of time. As if we didn’t have enough information to sift through already, do we really need more? … I guess the difference lies in the personal (read: narcissistic) nature of the content.” Indeed.