Hacking at Leaves 2024

Hacking at Leaves is a hybrid documentary-film by Johannes Grenzfurthner, an Austrian artist and filmmaker who serves as both host and director. The work blends documentary realism with fictional elements to probe big questions about optimism, freedom, settler colonialism, pandemics, and the fragility of society within an American context.

In a retro-futuristic setup, Grenzfurthner appears in a bright yellow radiation suit, perched inside a 1970s-style control room he calls his “flat.” He wrestles with the idea of making a film about a makerspace at the Powerhouse Science Center in Durango, Colorado, a place that played a crucial role in the global response to COVID-19 by producing medical equipment for the Navajo Nation. The prospect of turning this story into entertainment unsettles him, and he jokes about whether he could even “sell it to Netflix.”

Enter Uncle Sam [Max Grodénchik]—a larger-than-life figure who interrupts Grenzfurthner’s deliberations with a sharp demand: craft an invigorating tale about the “spirit of freedom, the endless beauty of the American Southwest, and a forceful statement against collapse.” He pushes for a true American story, one that could rally audiences. Reluctantly, Grenzfurthner agrees to proceed, but his aim is clear: to educate viewers about the darker sides of the American story and the long shadow of colonialism, rather than to deliver a glossy myth.

The film weaves together voices from activists, artists, and tech enthusiasts to explore surprising connections between the Navajo community, hacker culture, and the DIY movement. It proposes that alternative, community-driven approaches can spark social transformation outside conventional institutions. As one of the film’s guiding ideas, it treats the making of the documentary as a conversation about how communities organize, problem-solve, and resist erasure.

This is a story about communities. It narrates not only the history of the Navajo Community and its struggles but also the history of hacking and hackerspaces and how such communities function within mainstream culture.

Beyond the on-screen dialogue, Grenzfurthner later discusses the project in Profil, highlighting the importance of the Overton window in shaping how the film’s contents are framed and received. The documentary aims to illuminate both the achievements and the costs of pursuing a more collaborative, locally grounded version of American progress.

Hacking at Leaves thus asks viewers to rethink what counts as the “American story,” urging a broader, more imperfect but potentially more humane narrative built from the real experiences of communities on the margins of power. The film blurs lines between documentary truth and fictional possibility to invite reflection on how optimism, innovation, and social responsibility can coexist in the face of historical and contemporary challenges.