In the Realm of the Hackers

Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.

In 1981, Wau Holland and other hackers established the Hamburg based Chaos Computer Club (CCC). The idiosyncratic freethinkers were inspired by Californian technology visionaries and committed themselves to hacker ethics. All information must be free. Use public data, protect private data. But not everyone followed the rules. Computer technology was still in its infancy and the emerging Internet became a projection screen for social utopias. What has become of them? The story of the German hackers, told by the protagonists themselves in a montage of found video and audio material.

A small rural hospital in Japan battles an international cybercriminal gang that is holding them ransom with their stolen patient data.

A feature-length documentary about the Free Kevin movement and the hacker world.

Explore how in the past five decades, the internet has changed the very fabric of our society, highlighted by interviews with the founders of AOL, Craigslist, Friendster, Match, and Tinder.

Hacks is a 73 minute European documentary exploring what nature of "Hacking" is in a social context. In HACKS, the Austrian multimedia artist Christine Bader examines who is the computer hacker and what moves him or her. Is the hacker a Robin Hood in cyber space or an anarchistic agitator? Bader speaks with Dutch, German and American communication freaks who are working with various kinds of network issues, like making the Internet accessible to individual persons (Felipe Rodriguez, founder of Internet provider Xs4all), creating a meeting place in cyber space, or designing an ultramodern communication network on a ‘multimedia art ship‘. ‘Hackers are not encumbered by technical, financial or organizational problems, they just want to do things‘, Rodriguez thinks. That the technological means ‘just to do things‘ are now freely available is demonstrated by the numerous computer initiatives that whiz past in HACKS.

This documentary looks at the computer hacker community in New York City of today, its meetings and conferences, political annotations, and historically explores the roots of the original definition 'hacking' amongst the model train enthusiasts at MIT.

A film on Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse whose vision was to augment the collective IQ of humans using the computer as a tool to accomplish this.

Second Skin takes an intimate look at three sets of computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by online virtual worlds. An emerging genre of computer software called Massively Multiplayer Online games, or MMOs, allows millions of users to interact simultaneously in virtual spaces. Of the 50 million players worldwide, 50 percent consider themselves addicted.

Take an intriguing, fun-filled journey through the history of the Amiga computer. From the earliest days, we'll examine the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of today's latest models from Commodore. Listen while Jay Miner, "Father of the Amiga", tells amusing anecdotes of the early days and the first prototype...hear what Commodore has to say about the future of the Amiga...and lots more! Meet the people, view the products and visit the places that have helped make the Amiga and Amiga user unique in the history of computing!