The documentary film Scrappers, co-directed by Brian Ashby, Ben Kolak, and Courtney Prokopas, is a vérité portrait of Oscar and Otis, two metal scavengers who “search for a living with brains, brawn and battered pickup trucks.” The film encompasses several emerging themes bearing on contemporary crime, media, and culture, including the growing popularity of an American post-industrial aesthetic, the blurring distinction between film—particularly documentary—and social science, and the recent trend of metal theft, which has risen as one of the most prevalent property crimes in the first decade of the 21st century. This interview with the co-directors elaborates on these themes.
