"Get a life!"

Every fan has heard those words at some point, usually right after mentioning a favorite fannish activity to someone previously trusted. William Shatner's infamous SNL skit remains the single most over-quoted insult ever to be thrown against those of us who enjoy media fandom, and while the barb lost its sting (and originality) over two decades ago, the undercurrent remains a constant in every fan's life. People don't like us. People don't understand. "IRL" is not going to change this perception, any more than "Trekkies" did. The difference is that the people involved in making this documentary actually seem to care.

This is a low-budget film. The majority of the documentary consists of taped interviews with former members of The Bronze, the now-defunct official online posting forum for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer fans. The interviews are intercut with text explaining the timelines of various events, with footage from Posting Board Parties (PBPs), and with screengrabs of actual comments from the board. The sound quality is low in places, and the text in the screengrabs is tiny, making any salient examples difficult to discern. The interviewees look like typical fans.

It's lovely.

"IRL" is clearly a work of love, both by the person who made it and the people she interviewed. The Bronze emerged at the heyday of message board-based fandom, where comments and roleplaying and everything else went on one page, every new post at the top and a free-for-all otherwise. Joss Whedon posted there, as well as other Buffy luminaries, and the fans enjoyed them and each other.

Each interview, each testimonial speaks not just of the fans' love for the series, but of their deep connection with the other fans they met online. It's a well-known story, for those of us who've been here a while: these are my friends, I met them in fandom, we were best friends for life long before we ever met. It's fannish history, repeating itself on every board, in every community. The lifecycle of the Bronze is chronicled here with the words of the people who made it their home, and even for fans who never set virtual foot there, the stories are as familiar as day. (For my fellow Gargoyles fans from back in the day, it was like Station 8 all over again.)

The director, Stephanie Tuszynski, said she "wanted to make the anti-'Trekkies.'" This effort was successful, though perhaps not in the intended fashion. "Trekkies" takes the showiest, craziest aspects of Star Trek fandom, polishes them up, and puts them on display for the world to mock, whether or not the fans get the joke. "IRL" takes the dead-center typical online fannish interactions, paints them in the rosy glow of memory, and hands them back to fans with a bow on top. This isn't a documentary for mundanes. This is a documentary about fans, by fans, for fans.  It's for us.  You might show it to your parents to explain that you're not the only one who flies to other cities to meet your online buddies who are not, in fact, axe murderers.

Then when they still tell you to get a life, you can throw the box at their heads.

"IRL (In Real Life) – The Bronze Documentary Project"
Written & Directed by Stephanie Tuszynski
Original Score by Jymm Thomas
Not Rated
Running Time: 55 min