If you grew up watching MTV when they actually played music videos, you might remember a strange, hyper-kinetic show called Buzz that aired 13 episodes in 1990. It was called Buzz, and chances are, you didn’t see it. But you may have seen what came out of it.

Mark Pellington’s new documentary, This Is Buzz, isn’t just a look back at that experimental news program; it’s an autopsy of an analog relic that accidentally predicted the total information overload of the TikTok era.

Pellington, the man behind the camera, reunites with his original co-creator, ABC News producer Jon Klein, to deconstruct how they convinced MTV to fund a news show that rejected the traditional anchor-desk format in favor of a frantic, avant-garde collage aesthetic. The documentary chronicles the 13-episode run of the original series, where the narrative was built through rapid-fire cuts and raw footage. It dives into how they wrangled icons like William S. Burroughs, futurist Syd Mead and William Gibson to opine on a changing world while featuring artists and musicians that wouldn’t necessarily make it on MTV.

The real meat of the film lies in how it frames Buzz not as an artifact but as a prophecy. Pellington interviews those who were there, alongside fans like Chris Gore of Film Threat, to illustrate how the show’s global news compression style became the default grammar of the internet. 

If you recognize Mark Pellington’s name, it’s likely from his transition into feature films like Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies, as well as his work with U2.

While Buzz may have influenced the media of today, seeing as it was forgotten, I’m not so sure. Maybe I just chafed at all these tastemakers telling us why they were so important instead of showing us why the show was meaningful. There’s no establishing the thesis; there’s just the fact. This feels like a good extra feature for a box set of the episodes, but for those who have never seen it, it just seems rather hollow. 

MTV was made — at first — on the videos that it was given for free, and even then, it kept black artists off the air and regulated non-mainstream acts to the middle of the night. Hearing NYC intelligentsia art people reminds me of creative directors who opine in their offices instead of actually doing or showing something, in love with being cool and the elements of coolness, and dissecting that undefinable narrative rather than getting over the past and making something new. 

Regardless, this is an interesting examination of a time and place where you could get something like this on the air. But as for all that “MTV is different” today, yes. They no longer play anything but endless reruns of the same old, same old. You can make your own taste; you can be your own Buzz; you can share with the world as easily as clicking to upload a video today. 

Anyway, just watch these episodes of Buzz on the Internet Archive.

Then go make your own shit.

You can watch this either in-person or virtually at the Chattanooga Film Festival. For more info, visit the official site.