The Tracey Fragments, the latest film from Canadian director Bruce McDonald, follows the story of a 15-year-old girl (Ellen Page) who has “lost her little brother and sets out on a desperate journey to find him”. While the film itself looks absolutely phenomenal, Tracey: Re-Fragmented, the film’s online counterpart, is where the project really begins to take shape for those in the CC-community. From The Tracey Fragments:

Tracey: Re-Fragmented makes available at www.traceyfragments.com all the footage from the shoot of the film for users to download and re-edit their own related projects including music videos, new trailers or to re-edit the entire movie themselves. The Creative Commons licensed initiative also makes available the score of the movie by Indie Collective Broken Social Scene.

Director Bruce McDonald explains the inspiration behind the project: “The Tracey Fragments is a film that fully embraces experimentation and teamwork. I wanted to find out if that experience exists on the Internet and give others the chance to experiment and play with some beautifully shot footage of a world class actress in a free form environment. I hope people make their own feature films, short films, rock videos, trailers, experimental films and personal manifestos out of The Tracey Fragments.”

McDonald’s decision to embrace CC-licensing for The Tracey Fragments is remarkable in both practice and scope. Fans can choose to do what they will with the massive amount of assets provided ( under the terms of the BY-NC-SA licence), interpreting and re-envisioning the the film and its subject material in what is bound to be a variety of ways. By putting the film’s assets in the hands of would-be-editors and film-makers under CC-licences, Tracey: Re-Fragmented recognizes and embraces the concept of a hybrid economy, allowing people to experiment freely with the content around them while retaining the film’s commercial interests.

The Tracey Fragments already represents a fascinating foray into unique narrative and filmic techniques (specifically multi-frame editing) and Tracey: Re-Fragmented continues that experimental nature into the realm of content licensing. It should be noted that Re-Fragmented also functions as a contest in which the winner will receive a Tracey/Final Cut prize package, the details of which can be found at the “Re-Fragmented” section at the “Tracey website. The Tracey Fragments has its US premier at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles on Nov. 6th at 6:45. You can find other select screening times at the Tracey Fragments blog.