Name: Greg Packer: The Most Quoted Man in News
Genre: Documentary, Short, Biography
Released: 2013-08-27
Duration: 5 min
Rating: 5.4
Cast: Greg Packer

Quirky light entertainment but there was so much more to be had here and it does feel like a wasted opportunity

When he first saw his name quoted in print, Greg Packer was thrilled to the point where he decided he was going to make it happen more often. He took to going to major events to try to get near the front of crowds where reporters were looking for quotes, or queuing for new products or anything to get a reporter to take his quote and print it. This continued to the point where the Associated Press spotted the reoccurrence of his name and sent a memo to all reporters to be active in not taking his quotes. This short film spends a few minutes with Packer and looks at his unusual hobby.

This short film is a very light and enjoyable documentary which, as so many do, focuses on a quirky central character. It doing so it tells a very simple story and uses Packer as the sole on-screen contributor, rather appropriately letting typed quotes from papers do the rest. For the few minutes it plays it is engaging and quite fun, but it really barely does more than tell us a headline. Okay Packer is quite fun to listen to, but for me the film quickly felt stuck because it clearly didn't want to go beyond the base headline and at the same time it seemed longer than it actually took to do that. For me there is a longer and much better short film in here – perhaps 20 minutes. The lack of any information about Packer left me feeling unsatisfied and I do think it would have been more interesting to have explored him a bit more because, frankly, getting quoted in papers is not very interesting, but the man who goes out of his way to get quoted is much more of a story. Given how keen he is to be the focus of things, and how relaxed he was in front of the camera, it is not clear why more was not made out of this, but for me there is a much better film in this subject than this one and I'm not sure why this film had such little ambition in what it was doing.

The biography, or "biopic", is a genre that portrays the life story of a real person, often a notable individual or historical figure. They aim to provide a depiction of the subject's personal history, achievements, challenges, and impact on society.

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The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

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The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

Greg Packer, a former highway repairman, has pursued his hobby of being quoted in the press to the point of being banned by the AP.

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Greg Packer: The Most Quoted Man in News

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