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OFFICIAL STATEMENT about the film and its full release here
In recent years, the radical online community known as Anonymous has been associated with attacks or “raids” on
hundreds of targets.
Angered by issues as diverse as copyright abuse and police brutality,
they’ve taken on child pornographers, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system
and even forced a standoff with Mexican drug cartels. They’ve hit
corporate targets like Sony, cyber-security firms like HBGary Federal
and would-be web controllers like the Church of Scientology.
They shut down Mastercard, Visa and Paypal after those groups froze
financial transactions to Wikileaks. Along with other hacktivist groups
like Telecomix, they’ve launched cyber attacks against foreign
governments in support of the Arab Spring. They served as tech support
for the Occupy movement and have put their mark on countless uprisings
around the world. One participant described their protests as “ultra
coordinated motherfuckery.”
So who is Anonymous?
They’ve been called criminals, “hackers on steroids” and even
terrorists. But the vast majority of those who identify as Anonymous
don’t break the law. They see themselves as activists and protectors of
free speech, and tend to rise up most powerfully when they perceive a
threat to internet freedom or personal privacy. Whether you are a
soccer mom or a member of Congress, you live in an electronic landscape
that has exploded with largely unchecked intrusion and surveillance.
You are tracked by government databases while corporate advertisers are
looking to buy your personal data for pennies. In this landscape, the
existence of the collective internet culture called Anonymous makes the
case for
anonymity.
Using tools of disruption and spectacle, they have also become the
face of dissent for a variety of human rights and information freedom
groups around the globe. They are a legion of loud but largely masked
geeks, hackers, pranksters and outraged citizens who have unwittingly
redefined civil disobedience for the digital age, and found themselves
in the middle of one of the most important battles of our time.
WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists, takes
us inside the complex culture and history of Anonymous. The film
explores early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and
Electronic Disturbance Theater, and then moves to Anonymous’ own raucous
and unruly beginnings on the website 4Chan.
Through interviews with current members – some recently returned from
prison, others still awaiting trial – as well as writers, academics and
major players in various “raids,”
WE ARE LEGION traces
the collective’s breathtaking evolution from merry pranksters to a
full-blown, global movement, one armed with new weapons of civil
disobedience for an online world.
Click
here for a personal statement from the film’s director Brian Knappenberger.
BRIAN KNAPPENBERGER (Director/Writer/Producer)
Director, Writer, Producer Brian Knappenberger has created numerous
documentaries, commercials and feature films for the Sundance Channel,
PBS FRONTLINE/World, The Travel Channel, National Geographic and the
Discovery Channel. He is also Executive Producer of the 23 part
Bloomberg Television documentary series “Bloomberg Game Changers” which
chronicles luminary figures like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and the
Twitter and Google co-founders. His films have explored the changing
politics and tensions in post 9/11 southern Afghanistan in “Life After
War” along with abuses of power and freedom of speech issues with the
killing of a journalist in Ukraine for “A Murder in Kyiv.” Other
documentary work has ranged from tracking the changing climate
conditions in the Arctic, to how advanced technology is changing our
physical bodies in his film “Into The Body.” His work often centers on
technology, its possibilities and the transformative effect it has on
our lives, communication and culture.
ANDY ROBERTSON (Editor)
Andy developed a keen interest in filmmaking after his 4
th grade
art teacher assigned a Super-8mm film as a class project. His career
highlights include editing the feature documentaries RHYME & REASON
and the documentary television series AMERICAN HIGH and 30 DAYS. He
received two Emmy Nominations for PROJECT RUNWAY, the first reality show
to win a Peabody Award.
JOHN DRAGONETTI (Composer)
ToneTiger is the moniker of John Dragonetti, a music composer and
producer living in Los Angeles, California. In the past few years John
has the scored the music for several award-winning TV shows which have
aired on HBO, Showtime, Sundance Channel, NBC and E!. He also composed
the music for Doug Pray’s documentary film, Surfwise as well as the
Broken Lizard produced comedy feature, Freeloaders.
John is also a founding member, along with Blake Hazard, of the band
The Submarines. The group has released three critically acclaimed albums
and continues to record and tour internationally.
As a record producer he started with the Boston based pop group, Jack
Drag, recording five albums, the last of which was co-produced by Chris
Shaw (Bob Dylan, Public Enemy, Weezer). Dragonetti collaborated with
mixer, John O’Mahony (Metric, Cold Play) on the latest Submarines album.
He has also just completed producing and mixing Simmerkane-II the solo
project of Dispatch and State Radio singer, Chadwick Stokes. John had
done authorized remixes for Josh, Ritter, Avril Lavigne, Leigh Nash and
others.
