Alles ist Eins. Ausser der 0

They are activists, spies, geniuses: without hackers, the beautiful, colourful, digital information society would seem like the best possible world. They are the enlighteners that blind faith in more or less social networks needs. At the beginning of the hacker culture was Germany's first digital civil rights activist: Wau Holland is the visionary of a democratic digital culture. In 1981, he and a handful of fellow campaigners founded the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which became world-famous for its spectacular hacks and later for its involvement with the secret services. Wau Holland and the CCC stand for a practice of unhindered social exchange using the means of the machine. For them, digitalisation is not just a saviour, but a government technology on which nothing less than the social cohesion of society depends. From computer nerd to data artist, from hermit to media star, from subversive hacker to advocate of democracy: the energetic documentary ALLES IST EINS. AUSSER DER 0. uses clever montages to show how the big questions of our time permeate Wau Holland's life and work. The CCC's hacker ethics act as a memorial to the values of civil society, especially in the current dynamic of the Internet, in which an opinion is not only a free expression but also always a weapon.

EVERYTHING IS ONE. AUSSER DER 0. tells a story of digital subversion: from an exclusive club to an authority that is consulted today on all questions of net politics. The documentary film by Klaus Maeck and Tanja Schwerdorf is a stylish, powerful and dignified memorial to Germany's best-known hacker organisation. Rarely has one seen such a vivid portrait of zeitgeist pioneers whose vision for the present is as impressive as it is enriching.