“Storytelling,” April 20, 2003, DVD. This is another weird, funny (in a totally dark and embarrassing way) and painful film from Tod Solendz, who also gave us “Welcome to the Dolls House” and “Happiness”. It is two stories of unequal length, dealing with the creation of art and storytelling. One is about fiction writing, where an insecure, young, white and not exceptionally talented college coed (Selma Blair) writes entirely from her own experience for a brutal class in creative writing led by an exploitative African-American writer of talent and cruelty who uses and abuses her and his other white female students. The second and longer story is devoted to non-fiction, that is a documentary about a slacker high school student that is more fiction than the fiction. He wants to be a talk show host but is really a stoned out loser. It includes a wonderful bit from John Goodman as the kid’s father and a couple of amazingly creepy siblings. It is painful, cruel, exploitative, and brutal and often misses what’s going on. It is fiction from the non-fiction. It is all fiction, a totally postmodern film alive with misconception, pain, humor, cruelty, and intense embarrassment for this viewer. Amazing stuff on class, race, gender, and illusion. Hard to watch but worth seeing.