Artifact

Artifact (2012) is a music documentary directed by Jared Leto, available to watch online on iFILM, following 30 Seconds to Mars as they record This Is War while their label EMI sues them for $30 million.

Leto films everything: late studio sessions, tense meetings with lawyers, and long conversations with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and Serj Tankian of System of a Down — artists who'd already been through the major-label machine. The album gets finished. The lawsuit grinds on. What the camera captures isn't a making-of; it's a dispute over who actually controls creative work once a corporation writes the check.

The film's tagline — sometimes we must fight in order to be free — turns out to be a literal description of what plays out on screen. Watch Artifact (2012) online on iFILM.