You're right, we don't know anything. It's just a dot, below this

October 17, 2024 12:43 PM

Constructed entirely of archival footage, the short documentary Balloon Boy tracks the news story via the breathless hours of coverage news channels across the world gave to the peculiar spectacle, both during the flight and long after the balloon had landed. Directed by the US filmmakers Arlin Golden and Brian Gersten, and produced by the US filmmaker Nathan Truesdell, who is known for tragicomic archival documentaries tackling institutional dysfunction, the work forms a withering criticism of profit-driven news media. And, in the process of gawking at the surreal spectacle all over again, viewers may even find themselves a tad implicated in the systems of ‘news coverage’ that are rewarded for entertaining rather than informing. [Aeon]
posted by chavenet (26 comments total)

Ah, I remember those days, has it been 15 years already?
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:51 PM on October 17 [13 favorites]

I had freshly left my corporate job to pursue music and was, on that day, stationed at my dining room table, emailing and calling all of the venues I could to fill out the schedule for my first (and only) tour as a solo artist. After spending about 10 minutes freaking people out on Chatroulette by wearing my horrifying clown mask, I decided to check the news, and BAM, the balloon boy saga was unfolding. I don't know how long I spent watching aerial footage of that weather balloon careening though the sky, but it felt like a lifetime. I was legitimately worried, though at the same time somewhat incredulous that a child could be up there. What a day that was! And then he was found, safe, in the barn. And then he barfed on TV.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:58 PM on October 17 [6 favorites]

Wow I was very sure of myself in 2009. The older I get the less I think I know.
posted by muddgirl at 1:01 PM on October 17 [5 favorites]

In the future, everyone will barf on TV.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:02 PM on October 17 [11 favorites]

The interview of the boy's friend asking him how he feels that his friend is in danger was disgusting. Shame on the adults standing around and acting like it is normal. Disturbing.
posted by unid41 at 1:03 PM on October 17 [3 favorites]

I remember how quickly it was after the balloon came down with no one in it that the cable networks started pivoting to "unconfirmed" reports that an "object" (possibly a body!) had earlier been seen falling from the balloon. I've often wondered if those reports were real or if some editor was just making assumptions and prematurely filling in the blanks of the narrative.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:23 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

Is this all OJs fault? I missed the whole Bronco ride, I was at math camp and we didn't find out about it until reading the paper the following morning, but it feels like that was a turning point.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:38 PM on October 17 [2 favorites]

Link not working for me.
posted by zardoz at 1:45 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

It's easy to say this now, of course, and especially because I didn't catch any of it while it was happening 15 years ago, but my takeaway watching this now is that the father is kind of a terrible actor!

He's good at lying -- at stating facts that aren't true -- but both when exploding in supposed anger after the balloon launches (around 30sec into this doc) and when trying to emote his supposed relief that his son was safe (at around 8min 45sec in), he's kind of as phony as can be. (He's also a total phony when he's throwing things in anger in the reality show clip.)
posted by nobody at 3:14 PM on October 17 [4 favorites]

I would like to watch this, but the link also doesn't work for me, and I've had no luck finding it by another route through searching.
posted by Well I never at 3:43 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

Here is a link to Aeon's channel on YouTube with Balloon Boy
posted by chavenet at 3:54 PM on October 17 [2 favorites]

Thanks for the link, chavenet!
posted by Well I never at 4:16 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

Also preserved forever in song by Demi Adejuyigbe.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:20 PM on October 17 [2 favorites]

Balloon Boy-era Richard Heene reminds me of Bill Pullman in Lost Highway.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:10 PM on October 17 [2 favorites]

Just as an aside, director Arlin Golden is also one of the hosts of the brilliant Wiseman Podcast - going through the films of Frederick Wiseman one-by-one. It's easily my favorite film podcast.
posted by quartzcity at 8:34 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

There seems to be something squirrelly going on with DNS for aeon.co right now. The DNS servers listed on its whois page answer with an IP address but the public DNS infrastructure just returns DNSKEY Missing errors.

Until they sort it out you can work around it by editing your hosts file and adding the lines

76.76.21.21 aeon.co
76.76.21.21 aeonmedia.co

or just use chavenet's helpful YouTube link.
posted by flabdablet at 8:45 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

After editing my own hosts file, I found that aeon.co just embeds a Vimeo player that can also be reached directly: Balloon Boy on Vimeo
posted by flabdablet at 8:53 PM on October 17 [3 favorites]

I vaguely recall seeing this. I joined Twitter on Halloween, 2008, so I would have been at the height of my addiction about then. I mostly remember people being mad at the father when it was found the kid was hiding in the attic the whole time, so I wonder if I came online about the time this was wrapping up?
posted by Canageek at 8:59 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

So Balloon Boy is now old enough to buy beer. How the time flies.
posted by biogeo at 9:46 PM on October 17 [2 favorites]

(Also, that old MeFi thread is a wild ride. My favorite is how outraged some people got at the very suggestion that it might be a hoax.)
posted by biogeo at 9:47 PM on October 17 [5 favorites]

And, in the process of gawking at the surreal spectacle all over again, viewers may even find themselves a tad implicated in the systems of ‘news coverage’ that are rewarded for entertaining rather than informing.

Yeah, who are these people who pretend to be informing while merely encouraging us viewers to gawk all over again?
posted by Phanx at 11:48 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

aeon.co DNS lookup is now working properly again so I've deleted those entries from my hosts file.
posted by flabdablet at 2:54 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]

Crazy, I somehow vaguely recalled the phrase Balloon Boy but watched that entire piece being unable to conjure any recollection of any detail of the entire saga. None. Like the film itself was just a well wrought parody of American oddity and media fixation.

And now I'm actually grateful to discover that I was somehow otherly engaged in matters interesting enough to have fully missed this spectacle and its entire ensuing fallout. I mean, I'd remember having seen someone toss cooks on live teevee, right?
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:52 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]

Also, kudos chavenet, out of that entire piece, you picked precisely the right line for your title.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:56 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]

I thought it would be hilarious if the dad hid a tiny skeleton inside the balloon.
posted by credulous at 8:42 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]

Still one of my favorite Mefi Music collabs back in the day.
posted by cortex at 2:21 PM on October 19