Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows (Staff Pick)

Decades after becoming an internet sensation, Ghyslain Raza breaks his silence

In April 2003, a video of lightsaber-wielding teenager Ghyslain Raza arrived online and became a worldwide sensation, eventually earning more than a billion views. Widely perceived as a misguided Star Wars fanatic hungry for attention, Raza only had a casual interest in the franchise, and the original tape was a camera test for a school project he never intended to show anyone. Shared without his consent, the video went on to saturate mainstream culture, but rather than benefit from this attention, Raza was ridiculed, hounded by the press, and bullied by his classmates, ultimately forcing him to withdraw from school and all aspects of public life.

In Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows, Raza breaks his silence, revealing how this internet phenomenon became a harrowing personal ordeal – and the path he took to restore his self-esteem and find a sense of purpose as an adult. Fleshing out Raza and his experience, director Mathieu Fournier brings new depth to a story that went global without going deep and even brings Raza into contact with the blogger who turned him into a meme. It’s a potent look at high-tech harassment and disturbing new threats emerging online today.