I think he did pick the right word. At first the "hacking" vs "cracking" term thing came to my mind too. However, seeing him talk about hacking being about seeing the world in a certain way, finding something you want to change and then doing it without the need to ask permission. This film does involve cracking, but these characters from what I can see are true hackers as well. In the Bitchan interview, she may be a phreeker, but she's also definitely a maker.

You're very right about hackers. It's a mindset. I just found this project a few days ago, but I think Jonathan Schiefer gets this basic notion. Here's an interview that shows this quite clearly. http://youtu.be/o9iS0Khm7XA His reason for making this film is to show how empowering the hacker way of thinking is, that great things are possible with the right mindset