Keyword Cyberculture

What do you know about the Darknet? Silk Road, hitmen for hire and outlets for the most depraved aspects of human behaviour? This film delves beyond this notoriety to reveal to undiscussed depths of this network, exposing how activists from around the world are hiding in the shadows of the Darknet to protect the freedoms we all hold dear. As privacy, anonymity and freedom of speech come under increasing threat, a group of self-appointed freedom fighters stand on the frontier of an unseen battleground. This Gonzo-style exploration tumbles ever deeper down this rabbit hole, guided by hackers, cypherpunks and cryptoanarchists, to find the hidden light at the bottom of the deep dark web.

Conceived as an electronic road movie, this documentary investigates cutting edge technologies and their influence on our culture as we approach the 21st century. It takes off from the idea that mankind's effort to tap the power of Nature has been so successful that a new world is suddenly emerging,an artificial reality. Virtual Reality, digital and biotechnology, plastic surgery and mood-altering drugs promise seemingly unlimited powers to our bodies, and our selves. This film presents the implications of having access to such power as we all scramble to inhabit our latest science fictions.

In a few clicks, they can connect girls, make new friends in Sydney or Bamako, become a videographer or photographer, show their buttocks to a virtual friend in Berlin, meet anorexics, put their music online hoping to become famous... Welcome to the new "teen planet", where, it seems, we are more comfortable in the digital jungle than in real life. Ready to do anything to become celebrities via the Net, like the "Suicide girls", young adults posing naked on the Web who have become real idols for young girls, teenagers chat, download and publish their content at a hundred per hour: a set of techniques and knowledge that their parents often master very badly. To better understand this silent revolution underway among teenagers, for whom the Web has become the symbol of a new way of life and a tool for self-promotion, Stéphanie Kaim went to meet some young cybernauts.