Joybubbles

Inspiring Apple’s Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the telephone hacker who was born blind made headlines as both a tech prodigy and a big-hearted iconoclast.

Before internet hackers popularised the concept of scrambling technology, the analog pioneers known as ‘phone phreaks’ discovered that they could manipulate landlines simply by whistling at certain frequencies. Born Josef Engressia in 1949 before adopting his cheerful mononym in 1991, Joybubbles was one such phreaker. From the tender age of four he was obsessed with the telephone, and he first discovered he could perform the magical 2600-hertz whistle aged just seven. As a whiz-kid, he was drawn to experiment with technology, but it also represented a kind of lifeline: born blind, Joybubbles used the phone to forge connections with people – and to help others connect, too.

Though he died in 2007, Joybubbles can narrate his own story thanks to filmmaker Rachael J. Morrison, who uncovered a treasure trove of his audio recordings. In chronicling its singular subject’s life, underpinned by trauma but still overflowng with kindness, this loving and suitably uplifting Sundance-premiering documentary – produced by Sarah Winshall, who also produced By Design (MIFF 2025) and served as a consulting producer on Maddie’s Secret (MIFF 2026) – takes viewers back to a pre-internet era via its wealth of archival material, spotlighting a sidelined but fascinating chapter of hacking history.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival