For feminists and marginalized people, the internet has been a vital ally in consciousness-raising and organizing, but its benefits are in danger of being drowned out by targeted attacks from trolls and neo-Nazis. This year’s HTMlles festival provides a defiant rebuttal to the idea that marginalized people must accept these conditions, highlighting the fact that they have always had a claim to the internet as an artistic and political space.
“In 1954, a psychologist testified that reading comic books would turn children into juvenile delinquents. In 1994, a psychologist testified that reading Boiled Angel would turn adults into serial killers,” narrates punk rock mouthpiece Jello Biafra in Frank Henenlotter’s new documentary Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, which will be having its international premiere this Saturday as part of Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival.