Spirited Man
The Re-Emergence of Van Neistat
Published: 3/17/2021
By: Brennen Waldron
Van Neistat is a spirited man. A spirited man, as Neistat's mini-doc series describes, takes matters into his own hands. For example, when a dishwasher does not perform to the spirited man's expectations, he formulates and strategizes a repair. The repair involves unconventional parts fashioned in a hyperbolic fashion that would leave anyone else questioning their own answers to the fix. That's exactly what the spirited man wants everyone else to do.
Van Neistat, along with his brother Casey, rose to popularity in the early 2000s through their filmmaking. Films like iPod's Dirty Secret went viral before viral was part of our lexicon. Though 3 minutes long, the film brought to light and criticized Apple for having a battery replacement program for their iPods. With the film's international traction over two weeks, Apple surrendered and announced an extended warranty and battery replacement policy for the iPod.
In 2008 the Neistat brothers filmed an 8 part Docu-series all about their life and sold the series to HBO for a reported 2 million deal. This series threw the brother into the spotlight for indie-art-style filmmaking. Unlike his brother Casey who went on to become a YouTube mega-star vlogger and business owner, Van seemingly vanished.
Despite Van not operating his YouTube channel himself, he has recently re-emerged. In March of 2021, Van started releasing a YouTube 6 part series called the Spirited Man, and we get a glimpse into what Van has been doing.
Thoughts
– Are you a spirited man?
– What is a repair?
– What is one of your favorite spirited man inventions?
