Sep 15, 2012
HACKITAT – A film about political hacking
This film will crash land in the middle of the conflict
currently taking place between those who want to keep
technology and the Internet free and those who want to
control it.
We want to make this documentary and release it under a
creative commons license so that everyone can see the film.
But for this to happen we need your help.
ABOUT THE FILM
What compels some people to spend a lot of time and
energy on setting up servers, creating programs and even
committing crimes to help people in a dictatorship in
another country to communicate freely?
Who are the people building a nation on the Internet and
why are they doing it? How are the hackers in Bolivia
working to integrate indigenous languages into computer
software so that all people can access the technology?
Who are the hackers in the middle east that some call
terrorists and some call freedom activists. What drives
this activism and does anonymous in Bahrain share a
common ideology with anonymous in Brazil?
Around the world there is a network of hackerspaces that
explore, hack and create new ways of expressing
themselves with technology. Hackerspaces that by some
are seen as a threat to our digital society. What is it that
drives these people? What are their purpose and their
reasons for what they do? How do they live their lives?
These are some of the questions we will seek to answer
with this movie as we meet hackers and visit their
hackerspaces.
WHERE DID THE IDEA CAME FROM
On the 28th of November 2009 Malmö’s hackerspace
Forskningsavdelningen was raided by masked police.
Armed with batons and pepper spray they stormed the
social center where the hackerspace housed and
confiscated computers and other technical equipment.
One of the people detained was a hacker named mackt.
With a background in the Pirate Bay, for him the raid was
yet another proof of society’s mistrust and lack of
understanding of hacker culture.
After the incident he wanted to do something about the
distorted image of hackers. He contacted the film
collective RåFILM in Malmö and the idea was born to make
a documentary that explains the political aspects of
hacker culture beyond the simplifications and preconceptions.
Read more on hackitat.com., and please donate to their
project if you can.
You can see their video at their web site or by clicking here
