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'Cyberbullying hasn’t gone away,' says Ghyslain Raza, now 35, speaking from Kingston.National Film Board of Canada

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …

It was 2003. A video showing Quebec teenager Ghyslain Raza awkwardly imitating a Star Wars character using a long pole as a lightsaber was posted online, where it spread like wildfire. By 2006, it was estimated the low-tech video had been viewed more than 900 million times on computer screens around the world. Parody videos multiplied and the meme went mainstream with references on television programs The Office, South Park, Family Guy and Arrested Development.

Raza, then 15, of Trois-Rivières, was even given a name: He was Star Wars Kid, the schoolboy shown in one of the internet’s first blockbuster viral videos.

Children now would probably kill for such clicks and fame. Raza’s short clip today on social media might be seen as performance art or pop culture homage. But that wasn’t the scene in 2003, and it certainly wasn’t the case with Raza.

The video had been posted digitally without his permission. The attention he was receiving was mock and ridicule. Raza was harassed so severely he was forced out of his high school. Possibly the first victim of cyberbullying on a global scale, Raza hid from his moment.

Until now. Raza is the subject of Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows, a documentary made with Raza’s full participation that brings the reluctant meme star into the light by examining his story in context. The film, streaming at the National Film Board website, uses Raza’s Ground Zero case as a cautionary tale.

“Cyberbullying hasn’t gone away,” says Raza, now 35, speaking from Kingston, where he is pursuing doctoral studies in law at Queen’s University. “It’s more insidious. It goes unnoticed. But it’s still happening, and it’s still hurting people.”

Indeed, just last week Ontario Provincial Police laid criminal harassment-related charges against three teens in and around Cornwall, Ont., saying a teenaged girl was bullied online and encouraged to kill herself.

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The film brings Raza together with the American technologist and blogger who helped spread the video in 2003.National Film Board of Canada

Other than granting an interview to Quebec journalist Jonathan Trudel for L’actualité magazine in 2013, Raza hasn’t talked publicly about his unfortunate teenage event. “I was basically a laughingstock of the internet and my hometown,” he says.

The 2013 interview with Trudel directly led to the new documentary. Director Mathieu Fournier is a friend of Trudel. But, given that the film is coming out nearly a decade later, clearly it was a slow process.

“It took years to find the right approach and tone,” says Fournier. “It was important to make a film that was useful, meaningful. That might seem obvious, but it’s easier said than done.”

Star Wars Kid could easily have been exploitative and sensational. Bullying is a touchy subject – how does one present the four teenagers from Saint Joseph’s Seminary who originally posted the embarrassing video of Raza online? Fournier contacted the “perpetrators,” as he calls them, but received no replies.

Raza’s parents had sued the families of the video-posting schoolmates, eventually reaching an out-of-court settlement. Though the Raza family’s lawyer at the time is featured in Star Wars Kid, the documentary neither names the defendants nor dwells on them.

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Star Wars Kid begins with Raza participating in Quebec City Comiccon in 2000.National Film Board of Canada

“Ghyslain is not a person who seeks confrontation,” says Fournier. “He’s courteous, considerate and open-minded, and I wanted the film to reflect that.”

Moreover, the film is about cyberbullying and the right to be forgotten. Attacking Raza’s thoughtless schoolmates and publicizing them now wouldn’t serve the film’s message at all.

“We didn’t want to make this some kind of yellow journalism,” says Raza. “I didn’t have the choice to be anonymous when I was 15. Now it’s our turn. We wanted to do the right thing.”

The film does bring Raza together with Andy Baio, the American technologist and blogger who helped spread the video of Raza in 2003. Apologetic and emotional, Baio comes off as contrite in the documentary. “I believe Andy’s regret is sincere,” says Raza. “He’s like any one of us who could have made a mistake, which is one of the messages of the film.”

Star Wars Kid begins with Raza participating in Quebec City Comiccon in 2000. Given the worldwide fanaticism attached to Star Wars franchise and the obsession for all things sci-fi in general, one would guess the Star Wars Kid himself could have made a lot of money over the years if he only chose to embrace his infame rather than hide from it.

“Doing that was outside the realm of possibility,” says Raza, who describes himself as a “passive” Star Wars fan. “It would have meant selling my dignity, and that is certainly not something I’ve ever been willing to do.”

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