Web

Filmmaker Michael Kleiman's documentary is about a project to introduce laptop computers and Internet connectivity to children in remote Peruvian locales, centering on a single geographical area targeted by the One Laptop per Child program—founded in 2006 by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte—that has helped to develop an inexpensive, rugged little computer for distribution to schools in the developing world. Kleiman traveled upriver into the Amazon rainforest to the tiny villages of Antuyo and Palestina, which lack electricity or running water (and, in the case of Palestina, even a road to the outside world), spending months living there with local residents, watching their reactions to the devices. The scenes featuring children discovering the joys of surfing the Internet—not just Wikipedia, but also educational and entertainment sites, as well as e-mail—are charming, of course, but Web also chronicles teachers' efforts to keep up with their charges, as well as the constant problems with generators and modems that all too often frustratingly cut off service. Interviews with locals and Internet theorists also lead one to wonder about the impact that “connectivity”— including the “friendship” found in social networking—might eventually have on these small, close-knit communities. Web raises serious and intriguing questions about the benefits—and drawbacks—that technologically-based interconnectivity will bring to heretofore comparatively isolated tribal cultures. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)