It is now day 6 of the Milwaukee Film Festival. One of my favorite things about the film festival besides the films is putting brewers' yeast on my popcorn. I think I'm addicted. With that said, here are my picks for today's films.
Mama Africa at Landmark Downer Theater at 5pm
This documentary about the Grammy-winning singer Miriam Makeba is about the of the music film series Sound Visions. The film tells the story of this amazing South African artist from her fight with apartheid to her amazing and tumultuous life. Forced into exile from South Africa Makeba sung for people like John F. Kennedy and Marlon Brando and spread awareness of apartheid in South Africa. Makeba even perfomed with artist such as Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and others.
Mama Africa – Miriam Makeba from trigon-film on Vimeo.
WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists at Fox Bay Cinema Grill at 9:15pm
My next pick is about Anonymous, the hacker collective or to some a terrorist organization, and their impact on society. Time Magazine has called them one of 2012's most influential people. The film looks at this organization, who believes in open distributuion of information have target everyone from child molestors to credit card companies to the Bay Area Transit System and even the Mexican Drug Cartel. You could call them techno-vilgilantes.
The film explores early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, and then moves to Anonymous’ own raucous and unruly beginnings on the website 4Chan.
Through interviews with current members – some recently returned from prison, others still awaiting trial – as well as writers, academics and major players in various “raids,” WE ARE LEGION traces the collective’s breathtaking evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown, global movement, one armed with new weapons of civil disobedience for an online world.
