Emoticons is a fascinating exploration of the bonds that are formed between young women online.

Taking its name from the collection of little expressive faces that are used in chat rooms, Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honiggman makes full use of the online medium itself, weaving interviews of her subjects with online chat scenes.  No, that doesn’t mean she’s filmed people simply sitting and typing, but rather, utilizes a standard computer desktop instead, with small picture-windows showing both herself, and her interviewee, as they make use of the technology now at hand: MSN chat, cameras, and microphones. She immerses herself in her subjects’ medium of choice, ultimately winning their trust, and presenting a collection of women, ranging in age from 14 to 23, all of whose lives have been significantly changed because of the connections they have made in the online world.

Particularly affecting is the story of Saskia, a 14-year-old who is a tragic victim of school bullying.  She relates, with a dispassionate voice and blank expression, her various daily horrors, but we see her light up when speaking about gaming and chatting online.  Particularly moving is her journey to meet, for the first time, an online friend, as the youth and vitality that daily life had robbed her of becomes more and more apparent in the time leading up to the meeting. 

Equally compelling a figure is Samantha, whose use of the internet helped her get over being raped by a man she’d met online. She shares her story of using web forums to find the commonality of experience and understanding –something that, presumably, many others in her situation do as well. 

Samantha’s story makes the issue of class apparent, with the online world becoming the great equalizer.  Not only has she been able to share her experience, but she has also become a source of trusted wisdom and guidance for other girls online who are seeking answers to sexual health questions they may not otherwise ask.  She reads these questions with a small smile, understanding the sort of intimacy the web affords that real life does not.

This sense of connection is highlighted with the story of Debbie, a 23-year-old who met her “soul mate”, Inge, online. But this isn’t an ordinary love story. As opposed to meeting on a dating site, both shared the painful  experience of their respective mothers’ deaths from breast cancer.  E-mail, as Debbie puts it, is where “you can empty your feelings… phone calls inevitably lead to small talk.”

While it would be easy to laugh at Debbie and net-obsessed people like her, the scene of her reading the email she sent Inge when her mother passed away is very moving. Simply filmed, she reads off the screen, her bright eyes brimming with tears. A woman she might never have met holds her hand. There are no edits, no close-ups, no loud music. It is a simple scene, simply shot, and it is entirely compassionate. 

It is this quality of simplicity that makes Emoticons such compelling viewing. The only score is the combined voices of its subjects, allowing them a clarity and freedom that might not otherwise have been rendered. One senses a genuine interest in the lives of these women. As opposed to exploiting them or setting them up as post-ironic figures, they are presented as smart, creative people, whose previous loneliness has been alleviated thanks to modern technology.  The internet has given them an outlet through which they can connect with the world around them, as well as deal with their histories, and futures, as the ending reminds us.

While Emoticons is by no means a high-tech extravaganza, it is a moving piece examination of a new technology that continues to shape and re-shape our personal relationships.  You won’t quite look at your computer the same way again.

Emoticons screens April 18th at 7.15pm and April 19th at 12noon.
Both screenings are at the ROM.

For more information, go to www.hotdocs.ca