We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists

The documentary starts on an internet forum. What anonymous users did as a joke turns over time into organised action: first a church, then copyright companies, then credit card firms. The masks appear in the street and the arrests begin. The subject is not hacking but how a leaderless structure makes decisions. There is no single voice inside Anonymous; the film shows this as both a strength and a weakness. A serious operation and an attack carried out purely for amusement can sit under the same name. The form is standard documentary: interviews, screen captures, news footage. It makes no formal claim and at times admires its material too much. Its value is in its timing. It came out in 2012, when most of what it describes was recent and some of the people speaking were on trial. It is therefore not a history but a record made from inside the event. Looked at years later, some of its predictions clearly did not hold. Brian Knappenberger directs. Who it is for: viewers interested in internet culture and the history of digital activism. Who it is not for: anyone expecting critical distance; the film looks on its subject with obvious sympathy.