El mochilero del hacha

On the surface, this doc charts the viral popularity of Kai, but really it's about the insidious, predatory nature of parasites who deliberately ignored his VERY obvious mental illness to exploit him for their own gain. The warning signs were there from the minute the cameras started rolling - this is a deeply unwell young man who seems unable to parse reality from delusion, and his story inevitably ends in violence. But hey, he gets clicks so the Kardashian producers want to give him a reality TV show. He looks uncomfortable, like a caged animal in a zoo, but I want a selfie to show my friends. Most of the interviews are industry people detailing the various ways they tried to profit off of him while ignoring glaringly obvious red flags, with few if any showing remorse or even self-awareness. This doc also borders on exploitative, but it has value as a satire of our celebrity-obsessed culture and flippant attitude towards mental illness. I'm just not sure that was the goal.

It seems like an unintentional documentary on how the kid could have been rescued or helped with many chances to do so but all the people he kept crossing paths with only saw how they could benefit from him or cast him aside when they were done with their intents for him. Fairly crazy to look at these many people just act as if they don't know what they are doing, fairly mesmerizing, really. The pattern just keeps repeating from different people and even from the same people he crosses more than once, noone wants to see past themselves and face the reality that is in front of them basically screaming for help. What a sad society.

I'm not sure I knew about Kai before watching this. It's a watchable documentary but the participants in it make all sorts of irritating biased claims that suit their angle. To begin with I personally did not think of Kai's behavior as heroic even for a split second. He seemed chaotic in his speaking, was showing how he hammered the other person with way too much enthusiasm and just showed signs immediately that he's someone to beware of. The fact that so many wanted to see him as a hero (and are still speaking as though he had that great charisma factor) and how the media sensationalized him should be a deeply disturbing commentary on the state of what society values at any time and how media plays a role. Since the story is real and interviews are somewhat interesting it was watchable. But unlike many other documentaries, I don't see much of a lesson learned or any critical discussion to stimulate ideas that are useful. The underexplored murder also cast a shadow on the elderly victim, and I felt that the victim may be victimized again. I don't know what happened but we're only hearing the side of the murderer. Not the best doc. And certainly a real story that none should be proud of particularly the media. Face up to the consequences of your decisions.

Everyone who came into contact with this vulnerable, profoundly unwell man should be ashamed of themselves. How did any of these blood-suckers think participating in this documentary was a good idea? If I participated in the exploitation of this young man, you better bet I would hide that fact from the world until the day I died. The unbridled glee that all these media figures have when recalling their time with Kai is disgusting. There is no self-reflection. No sense of responsibility. No question of what kind of role they played in Kai's downward spiral. NOTHING. They just cared about how they can monetize his existence and enable his dysfunctional behavior. If all of that doesn't sound stomach-turning enough, there is also an overwhelming amount of stigma and disdain for unhoused people. Half of this documentary is remarkably tone-deaf exploitation and the other half is your standard, unreliable Copaganda garbage. I almost turned it off as soon as the East Cost cops show up. Everyone was so quick to embrace Kai as a Meme Hero and then immediately wash their hands of him. Shame on you, random Fresno Nobody Sports Reporter for riding a mentally ill man's coattails to a career you don't deserve.

Having never heard of Kai before this documentary, I was really interested in hearing his story. Through interviews with news reporters and television producers, we get a picture painted of a young homeless man with a hippie-esque mentality who became a hero through seemingly justified violence. But as Kai's story progresses, we come to see that he is a more unbalanced and unpredictable person than was originally thought. When police and family are interviewed, we truly begin to see behind the veil of Kai's homeless hippie hero persona.

While this documentary starts off well with lengthy, balanced coverage of Kai's rise to fame vis social media, it falls flat when addressing the crime he is currently imprisoned for. The murder of Joseph Galfy almost seems like an afterthought compared to the build up of Kai's meteoric rise through the majority of the film. Many documentaries covering crimes and convictions of this nature feature interviews with psychologists and legal specialists to better illustrate the antagonist's clinical mental state and history but little is done to showcase this, save for limited interviews with his mother and cousin.

While the story is interesting, this execution of this documentary fails to give a fully balanced look at the entirety of Kai's rise and fall, leaving you saying "Wait, that's the end?".