Shamed – Hot Docs 2025
David Lynch Teaches Creativity and Film
April 24 to May 4, 2025
Content Advisory: Child abuse/pedophilia, Underage romance/statutory rape, Suicide
FILM FESTIVAL
Hot Docs
Hot Docs 2025
PROGRAMME
Canadian Spectrum Competition
An online vigilante baits alleged sexual predators in Shamed. Jason Nassr built an online following through his YouTube series Creeper Hunter TV, where he would bait alleged sexual predators by posing as underage girls on dating sites, before confronting them on video. However, this online vigilantism and public shaming resulted in multiple individuals Jason Nassr confronted committing suicide. This finally results in Nassr being put on trial for his harassment and extortion of alleged sexual predators.
Shamed Synopsis
Shamed is a documentary directed by Matt Gallagher about online vigilante Jason Nassr, who described himself as The Creeper Hunter. Nassr’s modus operandi was to bait men he believed to be sexual predators on online dating and modelling sites, and then confront them on camera, with these confrontations posted on his immensely popular YouTube channel. However, the most common results of these public shamings were these men dying from drug overdoses or suicide, resulting in law enforcement being unable to prove their guilt or innocence.
My Thoughts on Shamed
Shamed is an incredibly hard-to-watch documentary with a subject in Jason Nassr who is immensely dislikeable. Director Matt Gallagher includes Nassr as one of the film’s interview subjects, and even after going on trial for his online vigilantism, which ironically included a written child pornography charge, he shows no real sympathy for the men he drove to suicide. Of the multiple cases described in the film, I was most affected by “John Doe #1,” a naive autistic man who believed he was just meeting someone for ice cream. Hopefully, in the end, Shamed helps to prove that vigilante justice ultimately does nothing but create more victims.
