YouTube's terms of use prohibit the sharing of videos that feature or encourage drugs use, unless the primary purpose of the video is educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic. Under this elusive definition, and despite the fact that it is formally a criminal offence in most parts of the world, in the past year thousands of YouTube users shear videos of themselves experimenting with psychedelic drugs. These videos range from home-made scientific experiments and instruction videos to live and intimate broadcast of the psychedelic experience itself – the trip.

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Psychedelic drugs, the most knows of which are Cannabis, MDMA, LSD and DMT (hallucination mushrooms and cactuses), are distinguishable from other well-known drugs such as Meth, heroin and cocaine, through criminalized in the same way in most countries.  psychedelic drugs are considered less addictive and are widely used for recreational and spiritual purposes. Some of them have been used around the world since the down of humanity and some were created in chemistry labs in the early 20th century. Experimenting with these drugs can be a window to an egoless mental state, a life transforming experience, comparable in impact to the birth of a first child or the death of a close person.

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The users who upload the videos, most of them popular YouTubers, share amongst themselves the information that states and corporations censor. They choose to be exposed and publicly display incriminating documentation of themselves in intimate moments, tell secrets and fantasies. Sometimes they ask for Likes or Shares and sometimes they do it without any reward. The users of the psychedelic drug and the users of YouTube are both given a great opportunity – they can set aside their ego and experience an almost unlimited connection with other people. How do they take advantage of this opportunity?

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#tripping is composed entirely of the thousands of YouTube clips documenting psychedelic drugs experiences around the world. The movie features the "trip" that the users document, on all its beauty and hazards, and explores what do they learn from their experience and what do they choose to share with each other and with the world. In the commercialized and distracting YouTube sphere, is there perhaps a subversive and radical network for shearing forbidden knowledge and scratching the edges of human consciousness?

Directors Udi Nir, Sagi Bornstein
Producers Christian Beetz, Udi Nir, Sagi Bornstein

Production companies udiVsagi production, Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion

Creative producer Georg Tschutschenthaler

Distribution Cinephil

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