The Luddite Club Documentary

Shot over three years by filmmaker Amanda Hanna-McLeer and her high school students, this intimate documentary captures The Luddite Club and their social media-free coming-of-age. In 2022, The New York Times profiled the flip-phone wielding teens and the story—ironically—went viral. What followed was a global, intergenerational movement for agency and autonomy.

Unlike other films on “teens and screens,” their journey is told largely from their perspective. They are accompanied by interviews with experts like Jenny Odell, Brian Merchant, Julie Scelfo (Mothers Against Media Addiction), and Palantir whistleblower Juan Sebastian Pinto. The film, like the movement, reaches across generations. It speaks to Zoomer-Boomers, and the generations inbetween who remember life before the digital overwhelm. Together they rehabilitate the word "luddite" as someone who is against the abuse, not the use, of technology.

With historical recreations of the original Luddite uprisings performed by The Lamp Club, the film is playful. With a bold, mixed-media style—drawing from Luddite zines, camcorder footage, and Gen Z aesthetics—the film is playful and human. We utilize the visual language of social media with quick cuts and eye-catching graphics. Like media theorist Neil Postman, our film seeks to create a new generation of “technological resistance fighters,” who challenge the status quo of our technologically dependent age. For more information:

Watch the Sizzle Trailer link here.

Visit the Film Website link here.