Hard Drive: Ellen Ullman
From ActiveArchives
Author: David Fox
Context: http://icarusfilms.com/new97/hard_driv.html
Description
Extract featuring Ellen Ullman.
In 1962, the RAND Corporation worked on a technology to protect the military might of the United States - a technology that became the Internet. Now the Corporation is worried; counter-cultural forces are prepared to use this technology to combat the creeping encroachment of personal freedom.
HARD DRIVE is a fictional road-movie in which a man running from technology hits the highways to meet the anarchists, the hackers, the cyber warriors, and the boys from the Pentagon before joining the combatants in the information war. His journey begins with the UnaBomber - who for 17 years waged war with the technological society - traveling down the Pacific highway towards Chiapas in Southeast Mexico. Here in the jungle the forces of the Zapatistas had realized the potential of the Internet as part of strategic counter-revolutionary insurgency.
With paranoia spreading like a virus on both sides, the United States prepares to dominate the international brave new digital age. For many it is a step too far, and the threat is that businesses will use their power and influence to suppress dissenting voices under the guise of protecting national interests. The question is who will win the cyber war?
"An extraordinary road movie! Brilliant images [and] wonderful characters... HARD DRIVE is a primer to grass roots politics on the Net and life in the computer industry in general."—The Guardian
Meta
Directors: David Fox, Christopher Walker. Producer: Peter Day. Camera: Maxim Ford Music: Ian Hill A Faction Films production
