Hot Docs - We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists

Rating: ****

Memes? D-Dos’ed? 4chan? Lol Cat? To the average ludite, a stroll through the world of We Are Legion might be a bit like taking a trip to Wonderland without knowing how to speak the language. One wrong turn and you’re eating cakes that make you shrink and taking advice from hookah-smoking caterpillars that nearly gets your head chopped off.

We Are Legion explores the impact and evolution of Anonymous. Labelled by some as cyber-terrorists, others as merry pranksters, and others still as the defensive wing of the internet, it naturally occurs that Anonymous is none of those things, and all of them. And then maybe a bit more. Director Brian Knappenberger follows what was once a loose coalition of net-savvy users sharing the weird and outrageous on a message board called 4chan, and traces it through its activist incarnation as the legions of the Anonymous take on Scientology, defend Wikileaks, and rise to still greater prominence even as its original members splinter.

I think Knappenberger does a couple of things very smart. While his admiration for Anonymous is apparent, he doesn’t present this as a smirky fan boy rendering of “look how clever these guys are and you’re not.” There is some very fair analysis in We Are Legion, and Knappenberger does more than fetish the Guy Fawkes mask (though I wonder if he was able to, or even considered, taking to V for Vendetta creators Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons). The other thing that Knappenberger does well is work within the parameters of Anonymous, which is the anonymity of several of its members. Scene after scene of talking heads hidden behind one type of mask or another as seen through a Skype connection could have made the doc technically jump the shark, but Knappenberger handles the mixed mediums well.

It’s a testament to just how well trusted Knappenberger was by the people of Anonymous that he was able to get these comments in the first place, but to reiterate, I don’t think We Are Legion is a glowing piece of propaganda for the group. Knappenberger tackles the good and the bad, the benefits and the demerits, and the potential good of Anonymous and previous actions that don’t reflect well on them moving forward. We Are Legion may not prompt you to remake yourself as a hacktivist, but it will give you a greater, more detailed appreciation of the culture.

Hot Docs - One Fine Day

 

Rating: ***

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, two African American athletes placed in the medal categories for the 200 meter dash. As the “Star-Spangled Banner” played, gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raised their fists in the air. In the midst of the social upheaval of the 60s, 1968 being the pinnacle of it, Smith and Carlos couldn’t have made a gesture more incendiary than what became the “Black Power salute” heard ‘round the world.

Of course to Carlos, now a track coach at Palm Springs High School in California, it was more a symbol of solidarity, but that didn’t matter to the U.S. Olympic officials who recalled him and Smith to American soil immediately after the medal ceremony. It also didn’t matter to the people that hired Carlos years later and fired him when they found out he was that “John Carlos.” And apparently it still matters to those retractable few who still send Carlos hate mail more than 40 years after the Mexico City games.

Carlos is one of the six people profiled by Dutch director Klaas Bense in One Fine Day. Each of the people profiled, in one way, shape or form, have inspired change through simple acts of non-violence. There’s María Jesús Sanhueza, who led a student protest in Chile to get better and more affordable access to education; there’s Christian Führer, a Protestant pastor who opened his East Berlin church as a free speech zone, which played no small part in the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall; and Kovida, a Burmese monk who stood up to his country’s military might only to end up expelled from his home country.

These are all incredible stories, and I admire the very steady and hands off way that Bense collects their stories and gets their insights. But there’s no real context and I’m not sure why these people were singled out. Bense’ definition of achievement too seems rather all over the map; Sanhueza changed the way Chile’s educational system works, but Carlos fist seems to have just gotten him into one instance of hot water after another for life. I think the message is very, very good, the idea that one person can make a world of difference is as apropos now as it’s ever been, but I am still stuck as to the more specific idea that connects them. But I suppose as a source of inspiration, One Fine Day is fine enough.

Hot Docs - The Yes Men Fix the World

Rating: ****

A few years ago, a pair of socially-minded pranksters made a movie about their exploits which targeted the World Trade Organization by posing as representatives from the WTO at a number of conferences. This combination of protest and punking seemed a winning combination and even though people walked away from these encounters with egg on their face, all’s well that means well I suppose. Well, the Yes Men are back, although I supposed they never really left. Their primary focus this time is Dow Chemicals, although they have time to squeeze in shots at the US government and real estate developers as well as other corporate giants, but it’s all in good fun. Or is it?

The Yes Men, AKA: Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, set themselves the goal of saving the world with this new effort, which begins with a public shaming of Dow Chemicals. Now what did Dow ever do to the Dynamic Duo? Well, nothing directly. A few years ago, Dow became the proud owner of the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India. This is the same plant where in 1984, 42 tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate was accidentally released immediately killing 3,000 and killing another 15,000 from the long term affects of gas exposure. In the 25 years since, neither Union Carbide nor Dow have taken responsibility for the accident scene or taken any initiative in the clean-up of the still toxic area.

So if Dow wasn’t going to take responsibility themselves, then the Yes Men were going to do it for them with a fake website called “DowEthics.com” and an interview with a leading Dow official on the BBC. Bichlbaum as Dow rep Jude Finisterra, promises to make full restitution to the people of Bhopal and accepts full responsibility for 25 years of neglect for the area on behalf of the company. In short order, the story becomes one of the biggest international headlines in that news cycle, and it isn’t until hours later when a statement from the real Dow Chemicals exposes the hoax.

To the progressively-minded audience member, to whom this movie is aimed at, The Yes Men’s pranking of 300 million BBC viewers is crescendo of subversive activism. Hilarious for not just the way these guys execute their schemes but also in how the news media buys straight-faced their tall tales, The Yes Men satisfy by doing what anyone fuming about inaction on a given issue have wanted to do. But to the media with their pants caught down around their ankles, the bad guys were the Yes Men, who for a brief period conned the people of Bhopal into thinking that they were getting help. Where the media stood on anger towards the guys who haven’t even so much as factiously promised help in the last quarter-century is never discussed.

Most of the comedy in The Yes Men comes not from the boys’ sometimes elaborate goofs, but rather in how the Powers That Be and the media react to them. Whether it’s sincere seriousness or manufactured anger, the reactions seem to be missing the point at every turn. In fact, one reporter tears into Bichlbaum and Bonanno when they’re posing as Housing and Urban Development spokesmen announcing public housing funds in New Orleans like they lead the country into a war on false pretences. They may not Fix the World in the end, but the Yes Men definitely shake up their small part of it. Their dedication rubs off on you the viewer, even if it’s simply an admiration for their brazenness and secret wish that you can be that bold.