{"id":13629,"date":"2011-04-30T18:33:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T01:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=13629"},"modified":"2011-04-30T18:33:17","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T01:33:17","slug":"move-over-batman-real-life-superheroes-are-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2011\/04\/30\/move-over-batman-real-life-superheroes-are-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Move over, Batman: real-life superheroes are here"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/entertainment\/article\/983219--move-over-batman-real-life-superheroes-are-here\">http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/entertainment\/article\/983219&#8211;move-over-batman-real-life-superheroes-are-here<\/a><br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_32521\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroesarchive.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/05\/vigilantespider.jpeg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32521\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-32521\" alt=\"One of many subjects wearing homemade costumes, combating crime in Superheroes.\" src=\"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroesarchive.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/05\/vigilantespider.jpeg?w=300\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-32521\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of many subjects wearing homemade costumes, combating crime in Superheroes.<\/p><\/div><br \/>\nBy Raju Mudhar<br \/>\nWhile the big-budget superhero films have to try to balance the fantastic with the real, director Michael Barnett had no such problem with Superheroes.<br \/>\nScreening at Hot Docs on May 2, 4 and 8, the documentary looks at real-life superheroes, who don masks, capes, duct tape and other equipment to patrol the streets and make this world a better place. The film is equal parts hilarious and hopeful \u2014 and sometimes sad \u2014 and despite the costumes, it takes its subjects very seriously.<br \/>\n\u201cEvery single one of them is doing more to make the world a better place than certainly I, and most everyone I know, are,\u201d he says. \u201cI have a deep respect for what they\u2019re doing. Are some of them ineffective? Sure. Are some effective? Absolutely. Are some misguided? Yes. Are some of their lives seemingly tragic? Yes. So it\u2019s hard to generalize for all of them, but I love what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<br \/>\nWhether it\u2019s helping the homeless, raising awareness about crime or even dressing up as \u201cbait\u201d to lure criminals, the likes of Mister Extreme, Master Legend, or the four roommates in Brooklyn who form The New York Initiative are part of the more than 700 documented masked vigilantes around the world who describe themselves as part of the real life superhero movement.<br \/>\n\u201cWe shot in pretty much every major city. At the very least, it\u2019s a subculture,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I would say it\u2019s a movement because it has this unorganized manifesto behind it.\u201d<br \/>\nBarnett knows that what many of these people are doing is dangerous, and they know it too.<br \/>\n\u201cIt is only a matter of time before one of their activities leads to someone getting hurt or possibly worse,\u201d he says. \u201cSome have told me that they\u2019ve received death threats. But the thing is they know that going in. They know the villains are out there, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the big-budget superhero films have to try to balance the fantastic with the real, director Michael Barnett had no such problem with Superheroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[259,396,625,638,1620,1673,1761,2181,2548,2550,2555,2564,2685],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}