Logline
Toni begins an online dialogue with her Singaporean friend Wei about their shared environmentalist ideals, not fully understanding the danger such dialogue puts Wei in and the potential repercussions from her own government’s surveillance.
SynOpsis
Toni, an outspoken environmentalist, attends a protest of the Adani coalmine in Melbourne. While she is there she meets up with her Singaporean friend Wei. Together they march with fellow activists, while news crews report on the scene. After the protest Wei has to return to Singapore on business, but they promise to stay in touch. Toni tries really hard to engage Wei in the types of conversations they had at the protest and in person in Australia, but Wei is avoidant and uneasy every time Toni brings the subjects up.
Toni grows more frustrated with Wei’s lack of communication with her and tries harder to engage Wei in some kind of discourse. Her methods for communication range from Skype calls, emails, whatsapps, and facebook chats. As Wei grows more distant Toni begins to notice strange things happening with her devices. The green light on her computer turns on unannounced— Toni covers it with tape. Toni begins to do more research on governmental surveillance and gets more paranoid. She also does research into Singaporean laws.
As Toni becomes more aware of what might be happening to Wei in Singapore she becomes more conscious of her own presence online. She is still adamant that her position of opposing Adani is correct and won’t stand down from her calls to action on Facebook and engagement with hard-core environmentalists. The story finishes with Toni gets a sinister knock on the door.