THIS IS BUZZ Screening + Live Panel

In 1990, MTV aired Buzz, a 13-part experimental series created by filmmaker Mark Pellington with producer/director Jon Klein and commissioned by MTV and Channel 4 in the UK. William S. Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, William Gibson, Jaron Lanier, Timothy Leary, RuPaul and others collided with music, politics, art, technology and youth culture in a rapid-fire collage of image, text and sound. It aired once. MTV never reran it.

More than three decades later, Pellington returns to the experiment with This Is Buzz, a new feature documentary about the making of the series and the moment that produced it. Part pop-culture history, part process memoir, the film looks back at a pre-internet period of radical experimentation and tech optimism—and at a visual language of pastiche, juxtaposition and information overload that now feels uncannily familiar.

Premiering at the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival and distributed by Antenna Releasing, This Is Buzz is a story about creative risk, corporate anxiety and what can happen when artists are briefly given room to reinvent the medium they’re working inside.

Presented by Moving Image Arts, the evening begins with excerpts from the original Buzz series, followed by a screening of This Is Buzz and a live conversation examining how the show’s collision of art, media and technology anticipated the way we now consume images, information and culture.

THE CONVERSATION

Writer Joanne McNeil, author of Lurking: How a Person Became a User and Wrong Way, moderates a panel featuring:

Mark Pellington — Director of This Is Buzz and co-creator of the original series. Pellington began his career at MTV and went on to direct Pearl Jam’s landmark “Jeremy” video, create the multi-screen environment for U2’s Zoo TV tour, and direct features including Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, Going All the Way, Nostalgia and The Severing.

Robert Tercek — Media executive, author and former Creative Director at MTV whose career has spanned digital media leadership at Sony Pictures Entertainment and OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. He is the author of Vaporized and co-host of The Futurists podcast.

Kate Parsons — Los Angeles video artist and educator who teaches digital art at Pepperdine University. She is co-founder of the VR/AR studio FLOAT and founder of FEMMEBIT, a platform and festival for femme and non-binary artists working in video and new media.

Holly Willis — Professor of Cinematic Arts and Chair of Media Arts + Practice at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she co-directs AI for Media & Storytelling. She is the author of Fast Forward: The Future(s) of the Cinematic Arts and New Digital Cinema: Reinventing the Moving Image.

ABOUT MOVING IMAGE ARTS

Moving Image Arts is a new Los Angeles nonprofit event series connecting the history and craft of film and video art with the tools transforming visual culture now. Bringing established filmmakers, artists and craftspeople into conversation with emerging creators, the series asks what remains worth making—and where the value of visual storytelling resides when the tools themselves are rapidly changing. This Is Buzz launches Moving Image Arts’ fall and winter program.

Saturday, September 5, 2026

6 PM Doors

Buzz episode

7 PM Screening of This Is Buzz

9 PM Live Panel

10 PM Close

Free admission with RSVP. Seating is first come, first served. Free parking on site. Food and drinks available.