RIVOLTA (Hubert Davis, Canada). 20 minutes. Rating: NNN
Michael “Mafiaboy” Calce, teen hacker turned cyber-security consultant and author, recounts his journey from black hat to white hat in this glossy short.
The Quebec-born Calce was behind the devastating denial-of-service attack in February 2000 that took down sites like Amazon, E-Trade and Yahoo. He was 15 years old Rivolta is the name of the program he used to do it.
In collaboration with Hewlett-Packard (which almost certainly has a cyber-security suite to sell you), director Hubert Davis (Invisible City, Giants Of Africa) illustrates Calce’s monologue with saturated news clips and slick, stylish re-enactments.
As corporate presentations go, Rivolta is well-made and fast-moving, but I’m not sure what purpose it really serves beyond marketing Calce’s next book.
Screening in the Singular Sensation(s) Shorts program May 7, 6 pm, TIFF 4
