We Are Legion

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists is a 2012 documentary film about Anonymous, directed by Brian Knappenberger. It was first screened on January 20, 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival. Topics covered include 4chan, Project Chanology and background about hacktvism. The film won Best Picture at the Downtown Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Fantasia Film Festival.

Quotes

• They are kind of the rude boys of hacktivism. There's a rude rough edge to them, which I think also is one reason why they garner so much love and hate from people too. They represent a certain sort of chaotic freedom.
  • Gabriella Coleman

• The hacker ethos has a passion for truth. It wants what's real to be out there. And it uses kind of a Philip K. Dick definition of reality: Reality is that when you stop believing in it, refuses to go away.
  • Richard Thieme

• We stand for freedom. We stand for freedom of speech. The power of the people. The ability of them to protest against their government. To right wrongs. No censorship, especially online, but also in real life.
  • Anonymous (group)

• We have members throughout society, at all stratas of it, worldwide. Yet we have no leadership.
  • Anonymous (group)

• It's one voice, it's not individual voices, that's why we don't show our faces, that's why we don't give our names. We're speaking as one, and it's a collective.
  • Anonymous (group)

• You want to see Anonymous rise up - try to shut down the message. Try to squash the message. Try to chill our speech. Then you'll see what Anonymous can do.
  • Anonymous (group)

• It's my community. It's my culture. I identify with Anonymous.
  • Anonymous (group)

Production

We Are Legion filmmakers.
From left: John Dragonetti (composer), Brian Knappenberger (director/writer/producer), and Andy Roblerston (editor).

• I was kind of mesmerized by what was going on. This is an attempt to define that culture.
  • Film director Brian Knappenberger, quoted in — Doug Gross (March 13, 2012). "Anonymous members speak out at surreal SXSW panel". CNN (Austin, Texas). 

• We have studied closely but are in no way affiliated with Anonymous.
  • Brian Knappenberger, quoted in — "Documentary in the works praising ‘Anonymous’ hackers". The Daily Caller. November 7, 2011. 

About

• Writer-director Brian Knappenberger takes an inside look at Anonymous, the collective of 'hacktivists' who take civil disobedience to the Internet.
  • Sean P. Means (December 16, 2011). "Slamdance goes for the offbeat in annual Park City film festival". The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah). 

• An intimate look inside the world of Anonymous, the radical 'hacktivist' collective that has redefined civil disobedience for the digital age.
  • Slamdance Film Festival (January 13, 2012). "Slamdance announces Narrative and Documentary competition films". Park Record (Park City, Utah). 

• We Are Legion might be the first to portray the group’s members as true revolutionaries, and it could serve as a time capsule if the kind of online sit-ins and retaliatory strikes that Anonymous has helped create become the new model for civil disobedience across the globe.
  • Angela Watercutter (January 22, 2012). "Anonymous Documentary We Are Legion Peels Back Hacktivist Group’s History". Wired News (Conde Nast). 

• Anonymous, the collective of skilled hackers, has put fear into the hearts of businesses and governments across the globe. Documentary filmmaker Brian Knappenberger delves into the history of other "hacktivists" and draws a line to the loose-knit community of folks fomenting civil disobedience through technological resources. The film includes interviews with current members of Anonymous, writers and academics.
  • Matthew Odam (March 8, 2012). "Wrapping up the top movies and panels". Austin American-Statesman (Texas): p. T20; Section: Austin360. 

• Knappenberger's film chronicles the rise of Anonymous from a disparate group hanging out in the forums of notorious website 4chan to the day recently when members of the Polish parliament, in protest of a vote they said would restrict Web freedom, donned their own Guy Fawkes masks in solidarity with the group.
  • Doug Gross (March 13, 2012). "Anonymous members speak out at surreal SXSW panel". CNN (Austin, Texas). 

• Essential viewing for those frustrated by the media's seeming inability to digest one of our moment's most important stories, We Are Legion offers an impressive introduction to an amorphous movement that is alternatingly demonized, caricatured and misunderstood by outsiders. Colorful and substantive enough to sustain a theatrical run, it will likely stand for some time as an excellent point of entry for the non-hacker public.
  • John DeFore (March 20, 2012). "We Are Legion: SXSW Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 

• Brian Knappenberger’s film about tech-savvy activist organizations like Anonymous, WikiLeaks, and LulzSec is a nimble, multi-faceted look at the formation of leaderless global protest movements in the last decade or so.
  • Norman Wilner (April 26, 2012). "We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists". Now Toronto (Toronto, Canada). 

• We Are Legion has almost impossibly high production values. This is a documentary, but it is a documentary for the children of the Internet era. It has narrative and plot structure; it has aesthetics; it has design and artistic value.
  • Ryan Findley (September 29, 2012). "“We Are Legion”: Anonymous and the new era of activism". Third Coast Digest (Vital Media Group). 

See also

• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of the press
• Internet
• Wikileaks

External links

• We Are Legion, official website
• We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists - Trailer, YouTube
• We Are Legion quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• We Are Legion, Rotten Tomatoes