The Target Shoots First

“Christopher Wilcha’s fascinating feature-length video reminds us how seldom we’re allowed to see certain businesses operating from the inside. Wilcha, a 22-year-old college graduate and alternative-rock enthusiast, was hired by the Columbia Record and Tape Club—apparently as a fluke—to help launch a whole new niche-marketing division, which brought him face-to-face with the contradictory meanings of the term ‘alternative’ once it’s been embraced by the mass market. He brought his video camera to work every day, and what emerge are selective glimpses of—and thoughtful reflections on—his extended stint with the company.” —Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Chicago Underground Film Festival,” Chicago Reader (13 August 1999)

“Guerrilla infiltration? Or a sly spin on corporate marketing? Subversives aside, The Target Shoots First is a hilarious, hyper peek inside that mail-order music monster, Columbia House.” —Steve Seid (Berkeley: Pacific Film Archive, 1999)