Radicalism has long been associated with the left, but filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough’s documentary focuses on a new breed of radical who gravitates to the extreme right. These new radicals with anti-government views and an emphasis on personal freedom harken back historically to figures such as John Milton, whose Areopagitica (1644)--offering a defense of absolute liberty regarding publication--is espoused as a credo by Lough’s first example: Cody Wilson, an Arkansas native who invented a plastic gun called the Liberator, which can be made on a 3D printer. Lough follows government efforts to squelch Wilson’s use of the Internet to promote the product, after which Wilson heads to the courts to argue against any abridgement of his right to disseminate instructions for making the gun (one interviewee compares those efforts to prohibiting an online recipe for chocolate chip cookies). Lough’s second subject is British-Iranian computer programmer Amir Taaki, a major force in the creation of the virtual currency bitcoin, which he opines will be the death of the banking industry. The film not only gives both men ample opportunity to explain their crypto-anarchist, anti-establishment views, but also follows their joint effort to establish Dark Wallet, a project that would keep web transactions anonymous, which naturally invites law enforcement scrutiny. The aim of Wilson and Taaki, as well as WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange--who is interviewed here, along with scholars and journalists--is to upend the political, social, and economic status quo. A provocative film that will surely encourage animated discussion, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
The New Radical
(2017) 109 min. DVD: $59.95 ($350 w/PPR from edu.passionriver.com). Passion River (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 3
The New Radical
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