Political, Internet, social and freedom of speech and information activist, reddit co-founder and prodigious RSS pioneer Aaron Swartz – who last year took his own life at twenty-six – is the subject of what looks to be a highly-engrossing new documentary from Bryan Knappenberger, The Internet’s Own Boy.
Per the film’s first trailer, The Internet’s Own Boy explores Swartz’s nascent years and the events which lead to the two year trial he was facing at the time of his tragically early death, in which the anti-SOPA hacktivist faced 35 years in prison for hacking MIT’s network and downloading 4.8 million academic journal articles from online library JSTOR.
The Kickstarter-funded film made its debut at Sundance earlier this year to rave reviews and while there’s no discernible Australian release date – in keeping with Swartz’s pro-file sharing efforts – it’s not hard to conceive of a broad ‘unofficial’ release happening at some point in the near future.
UPDATE: Thanks to a helpful cineaste/reader, The Internet’s Own Boy will have its Australian premiere during the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival on May 15th at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. More information here.
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