"iBrotha" Movie Completed: What If Malcom X Evangelized The Mac?

October 16th, 2002 at 3:00 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin

In March of this year, we brought you a report on a movie being made in Britain called iBrotha. The significance of that name, of course, was our very own Rodney O. Lain, who had been writing under the name "iBrotha" for some time [Editoris Note: Rodney also penned the March story, though it was attributed to "Staff."]. The filmis Web site says, "iBrotha is the story of a young man so passionate about Apple Mac computers he turns into Malcolm X to get the machines the respect they deserve. By any means necessary." Or, from the Wired story:

"I love Macs, but the filmis about the fanatics," [iBrotha creator Jake] Barnes said. "Those who go a step too far. The premise is: iWhat if Malcolm X evangelized Macs? Would he really?i Some think he would."

Wired is reporting today that the movie is complete, and making the rounds in the film festivals. Wired also notes that the filmis Web site is dedicated to the memory of Rodney O. Lain, who took his own life in June. As in our original report on the movie from earlier this year, however, we should stress that Jake Barnes came up with the idea independently from Rodneyis writing persona. A quote from Mr. Barnes originally published in the March story:

Peopleis devotion to the Mac can touch on the fanatical/ religious, hence the use of Malcolm X to portray this. Itis an affectionate look at Mac radicalism but also a recognition that itis a bit silly. By equating the popularity of an OS with a human rights struggle we can show the lack of perspective that sometimes affects Mac heads.

Itis also something Iive passed through myself. There was a time when the highlight of my day was the updating of Macsurferis and I would go into shops just to check the Macs were running fine and at optimum levels (virtual memory off, cursor blinking on fast etc.) . But thatis mostly passed now.

Seems to have struck a chord with people on the race and platform level. The reactionis been almost unanimously good. Itis also a London thing, style, attitude and music wise. Copland is a yoot.

Thereis a lot more on the film, its creator, and other related information in the full Wired article, and we recommend it as a good read.