Hot Docs 2008

Acclaimed doc maker Heddy Honigmann (Forever, 2006) goes online to investigate the virtual social lives of teenagers. For six girls with difficult lives, the Internet is a safe haven where they can be themselves without fear of being judged. They submerge themselves in a virtual world, a world that is increasingly portrayed by the media as "dangerous." But their online lives are more important to them than their "real" ones where they are often ignored by their peers or, even worse, bullied and harassed. Honigmann meets the girls first online and then in their homes, getting right to the heart of the matter: these girls are lost souls in search of contact, consolation, help, friendship and love. Online social networks are not going to disappear and Emoticons does not take a stance on whether they should. But it sensitively illustrates that there are children being alarmingly neglected by traditional social systems.
-Shannon Abel