Comedy | 01 November 1987

Gene Siskel

A Confessional Documentary is a 1-minute long short film directed by noted film critic Gene Siskel, originally shown alongside his partner Roger Ebert's short film (Citizen Yuppie) on the 1987 broadcast of their annual Holiday Gift Guide program. It was shot entirely on a (then-new) Fisher Price PixelVision PXL2000 low-fidelity camcorder in monochrome on compact audio cassette, inspiring Richard Linklater to utilize the same technique in his 1991 feature SLACKER. The film recontextualizes the image of Roger Ebert's face to provide some humorous jabs at the nature of film criticism.