The documentary “Killswitch: The Battle to Control the Internet” highlights the struggle to protect a free and open Internet through the stories of two young hacktivists, Edward Snowden and Aaron Swartz.
“These are very average people who did very extraordinary things,” said Ali Akbarzadeh, director of the documentary, who graduated from CSULB with a bachelor’s in 2002.
Co-screenwriter Chris Dollar, who graduated from CSULB in 2003 with a bachelor’s in political science, said “Killswitch” is meant to inform people on the issues immediately affecting those who use the Internet.
“There must be education on public policy that advocates free speech,” Dollar said.
Neither alumni had met before making the film but decided to come together for the production of “Killswitch” in 2011 and finishing production in June of 2014.
However, during production, changed the course of their message. “Killswitch” had been intended to be a documentary on government entities spying on citizen privacy and internet security. However, two major events forced the documentarians to rethink their film’s narrative.
In 2013, the issue of net neutrality became a hot-button issue. Net neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be permitted to access all content and applications unimpeded by service providers regardless of the source.
Dollar and Akbarzadeh realized that their audience demographic needed to change. They wanted to reach the group with the largest amount of Internet users, people from the ages of 13 – 24. But up until that point, there had been no compelling story to tell.
The second event was the death of Aaron Swartz.
“It was no longer just about the government spying on your privacy,” said Dollar.
Facing up to 50 years in prison, Swartz committed suicide after being indicted for hacking into JSTOR, a digital repository of academic journals.
Media sources including Forbes, Daily Mail, Wired, The Huffington Post and Time suggested that the government had used overzealous prosecution as a way to make an example out of Swartz.
Akbarzadeh wasn’t sure there was a sure way to properly connect the government’s practice of invading Internet user’s privacy under the pretense of national security while at the same time acting as a gatekeeper of vast amounts of academic knowledge.
“At that point, I thought about giving up just about everyday,” said Akbarzadeh. “I would watch the edits and think this wasn’t going to happen.”
Akbarzadeh had to take two months off, putting the entire process on hold, to figure out how to appropriately produce the documentary. During the process, he went through three different producers until he finally found the edits he needed that would provide the right direction.
“When things seem completely hopeless and helpless, you either quit or see it through,” said Akbarzadeh. “It’s in those moments that you find who you really are.”
The documentary showcases the Internet’s latest battle between democracy and authoritarianism. It’s a battle in which over 2 billion users worldwide, including 279 million Americans, find themselves caught right in the middle of.
“Question everything, including yourself and continue to learn,” said Dollar. “There are a lot of things that threaten the freedom of press.”
The day before the FCC approved the net neutrality Rules for Open Internet, Congressman Alan Grayson sponsored a screening of “Killswitch” on Capitol Hill.
“Killswitch” has played in numerous film festivals worldwide, including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Cinequest, and won Best Editing at the Woodstock Film Festival.
“I didn’t make this documentary for the money,” said Akbarzadeh. “We made this documentary because I wanted to make a difference.”
The documentary will be available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection on Oct. 23 through the “Killswitch” website and BitTorrent Bundle, a free and legal content sharing format.