Brian Knappenberg

In collaboration with Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR2 Dokumania, Kunsthal Charlottenborg presents the documentary ‘Internet’s Own Boy’ by the filmmaker Brian Knappenberg about the young internet activist and developer Aron Swartz, who tragically committed suicide in 2013. The film is displayed on the occasion of Ahmet Ögüt’s current exhibition, which includes a new bronze sculpture of the film’s main character Aaron Swartz – one of the heroes of the internet.

The documentary portrays a fascinating person who lived and breathed to make information and knowledge accessible to as many as possible. In his short life, Aaron Swartz was a co-founder of news site Reddit, being a co-developer of RSS technology and making an early version of a Wikipedia-like online dictionary. However, it was especially his glowing internet activism that made him famous and notorious. He engaged in the struggle to make legal and academic documents openly available and it turned out to have big consequences.

Aron Swartz was charged with illegally having access to an online base of academic articles via MIT’s network. Aaron Swartz was responsible for risking up to 35 years in prison and a fine in the million dollar class, and it was obviously too much for him. On January 11, 2013, Aaron was found dead in his apartment in Brooklyn.

There is free admission to the film when entrance fee is paid to Kunsthal Charlottenborg. The film will be shown in the cinema at Kunsthal Charlottenborg from 16th – 28th January 2018 and will also be shown on January 24th on Danish tv-channel DR2. After the broadcasting the documentary will also be available online on dr.dk/tv.