I Would Like to Rage

Compassion, sadness and love can be expressed quite effectively online — even when acted, they can seem quite authentic. The same cannot be said of anger. Onscreen, an expression of escalated displeasure and negative agitation almost always looks like a poorly acted play. This has to do with the frequent use of outbursts of anger online as a strategic means to build an image or intimidate others, especially by male social media users. Anger thus degenerates into a blunt platitude, captured in memes and GIFs. In their latest video essay, Chloé Galibert-Laîné, a master of the genre they aptly call “desktop documentary,” explores how they can reclaim anger as a bona fide emotion in the online environment. They study gestures and words, who uses them and how, as well as how people respond to them. With a comic perspective, Galibert-Laîné concludes that authenticity is often an imitation of the accepted standard. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)