This film was shown on the Disney Channel during one of their free subscription drives only a short time before it got a limited release in New York (and I'm not sure where else). This does represent an interesting and novel strategy, as films, even documentaries aren't often showed several times on cable before a commercial release, even a small one. The exception is PBS, who shows documentaries before limited arthouse releases. Disney copying a strategy from PBS is an odd twist indeed. Further, the subject matter is pretty far removed from the "family values" that Disney promotes so heavily during these subscription drives. I.e., "Here's a cable family you can feel comfortable about leaving your children home to watch. To wit, here's a black-and-white documentary about a depressed pop star whose career foundered as his artistic aspirations rose." The film is quite interesting from the perspective of the recent spate of documentaries which have focused on famous, once-famous, infamous or cult icons: *Nico/Icon*, *Crumb*, and the new documentary on Heidi Fleiss, to name only a few. A cover article in this last Sunday's *New York Times* suggested that recent Broadway plays like *Mrs. Klein* and *Master Class* have focused on famous figures because so little else is capable of motivating a Broadway production of a 'straight' play (i.e., without music). A similar case could be made for these documentaries, which have the potential for lining up an audience that's already interested in the subject matter. Thus documentaries of this kind can use a strategy for insuring some box-office, however small, in the same way as fiction films have relied on stars and well-known literary properties to help secure the investment by depending upon an existing market. It also seems like these films further the blurring of the cult/mainstream distinction which is legible in the cinema marketplace by the increased earning potential of independent films from *Clerks* to *Pulp Fiction*. A few thoughts on the significance, if not the merits, of *I Just Wasn't Made for these Times*. Edward R. O'Neill UCLA ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]