Documentary to premiere at Metropolitan on Friday
Jul. 21—"Trolling" on the Internet has existed since the dawn of technology.
Whether it's through memes, disinformation campaigns or cyberbullying, it's a trouble portion of cyberspace that continues to cause problems.
Focusing on one "troll" named Matthew, the documentary "Nowhere Man" wonders what safeguards are put into place to protect people being targeted and the person committing the act.
"When you confront a genuine monster, there's no one to protect you. The law can't do it and these companies aren't going to do it. And there's no recourse," Peter John Ross, "Nowhere Man" director, said.
The documentary will have its global premiere at 7 p.m. on Friday at The Metropolitan, 107 S. 6th St. Admission is $7. It will also include a performance by the rock band The Ramey Memo.
Speaking with Ross, as he prepared to go from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, to St. Joseph for the premiere. He said it's been an odd adventure, as he traced the many places that Matt allegedly trolled, grifted and threatened people, from Akron, Ohio, to Des Moines, Iowa, to St. Joseph.
"My personal belief, based on what I've seen, he generally picks medium sized cities between 45,000 to 200,000, population, because it's not too big, where he can't make a name for himself, but it's not so small that you'll stick out," he said.
Ross details the many ways that Matt was able to allegedly target and harass people in the area, many of which are interviewed in the documentary. There's pain and anger behind their stories, but also a sense of catharsis that they weren't alone.
"The film represents a lot of people who are victims of cyber abuse. I think that's crucially important to talk about that, the more our lives shift into that space," Ross said.
A target of Matt's harassment, Ross said the lack of assistance that he, along with other alleged victims, never received from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, fueled his want to make the documentary.
"It's terrifying that you don't have a human you can talk to at Facebook, Google, Twitter. There's no phone number (to call). Their only customer service is automated. They do everything through AI now," he said.
When people started allegedly receiving thousands of harassing or threatening messages, Ross said it was scary. He hopes the documentary can bring people together to talk about harassment and how they got through it.
"The most I can hope with is that when people see this, they get something similar to the catharsis I had. Sharing this story might get them to share their stories with whatever they've dealt with, in a similar way. And by sharing, there's strength in numbers," he said.
"Nowhere Man" is unrated.
Andrew Gaug can be reached at andrew.gaug@newspressnow.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @NPNOWGaug
