Downloaded

In 1999, teenagers Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker launched the file-sharing service Napster. What had begun as a largely unknown underground distribution medium erupted into a global revolution. Directed with a deftness of skill by Alex Winter (yes, Bill of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"), the film charts the rise of the online music-sharing service and the contribution it made in leading up to the current ubiquity of digital media sharing, as well as its incalculable effect on the music industry. With interviews with musicians such as Mike D of The Beastie Boys, Oasis' Noel Gallagher and Henry Rollins; industry executives such as Hilary Rosen, formerly of the RIAA; and civil and digital rights pioneers such as John Perry Barlow and Lawrence Lessig, Downloaded is an enlightening and entertaining education in where we have been in the digital space and how that has informed where we are now. A FilmBuff Presentation.