While it was easy to find lawyers drumming up business by trash-talking fair use at SXSW, it was hard to find a documentary that hadn’t employed it, sometimes lavishly. Furthermore, you could even see fair use at work in fiction film work.
"Fair use is so important for independent producers like myself," said Sandy McLeod, maker of "Seeds of Time,"about the crucial importance of agricultural seed banks for successful climate-change adaptation.
Films that told recent history employed fair use to tell that history. Margaret Brown’s "The Great Invisible," which told the story of the human and social consequences of the BP oil spill, used fair use, and has already obtained errors and omissions insurance for it. Katy Chevigny, co-director of E-Team, said, "Sure, we used lots of fair use." Brian Knappenberger noted, “There was a lot of fair use in "The Internet’s Own Boy," as in all my films.” Read more...