Video

Video Hacking

Manuel Saiz

1999, 04:22 minutes, colour

TAPECODE 730.01

"Fictional documentary about a video art activist who manipulates tapes in video shops standing for chaos and against copyright."

Mockumentary is the term used to define a film genre which emerged a few years ago, and in which fiction
films are styled as documentaries. It is the perfect way to give the audience the wrong idea about the
truthfulness of the story, and at the same time to call the strict dividing line between fiction and documentary into question.

'Videohacking' is a mini-mockumentary in which a video hacker donning a balaclava tells us what he does and why. For those who have no more than a faint idea about the wondrous world of hackers, nerds and antiglobalists, the existence of such a character is plausible. He rents classic films from ordinary video shops, and sets out to adjust and improve these illegally on the computer, with a preference for scenes that he liked already. Then he returns the modified tapes, hoping that those who rent 'his' films after him will unknowingly be the better for it. It is not a question of ethics, he tells us, but what he is opposed to is copyright claims.

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