by allan tong for FILMbutton

Downloaded could be called The Rise and Fall of Napster. In 1998, some teenage kid from Boston named Shawn Fanning created a software to share his favourite tunes easily over the internet. Fanning partnered with buddy Shaun Parker (who would later join the Facebook team) to create the Napster website. Essentially, these two unleashed a Genie that forever altered the way the world listens to music. This fascinating doc sympathizes with Napster, but gives equal time to its foes, the record companies who eventually brought Napster to its knees in the courts. History classes in the future will show Downloaded to teach kids.

Allan is a Toronto filmmaker, co-directing Leone Stars, a documentary about child victims of the Sierra Leonean civil war.