A long time ago on an internet far, far away, a fourteen-year-old kid recorded himself using a golf ball retriever as a lightsaber. The saga of the Star Wars Kid followed. The video became one of the first to go viral on the web and bring its subject fame, infamy, and bullying.
Twenty years later, Dans l'ombre du Star Wars Kid aka Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows uses the incident to explore the rise of meme culture, the circulation of private videos, and the right to be forgotten. The original video's subject, Ghyslain Raza, revisits his story. Experts offer commentary. The students in the class he once occupied note that the video now would likely be lost among multitudes of others. A contrite Andy Baio (whose repost most contributed to the video's viral status) and Raza find they really get along.
The doc also dispels myths that grew around the incident. Raza was harassed and became depressed; he was neither suicidal nor institutionalized. He was never even, particularly, a Star Wars fan. He was trying to work out the effects sequence for a Star Wars segment of a class video project. He might just as easily have been doing Indiana Jones.
The story reveals much about the early days of Web 2.0 and the sometimes disturbing cultures that have grown online. We see the darker side of human nature: Raza's lawyer says that neither the classmates who stole and uploaded the footage nor their parents have ever shown any sign of remorse or regret.
We also see some light. Raza has grown into a successful and forgiving individual, and his pleas that contemporary children not have every mistake they make or embarrassing incident permanently preserved on social media seem to be receiving some positive hearing.
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