Amazon Holiday

Sunday, September 27, 2009

We Live in Public

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A documentary about Josh Harris, an early internet pioneer who predicted that social networking would take over and destroy our ability to interact with each other as kind, loving humans, long before social networking had been invented.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Josh Harris, members of his family, his most pivotal ex-girlfriend, Tanya Corrin, and a large number of New York freaks who sign up to live together for a month in an underground bunker where they were filmed doing everything from showering and sh*tting to f*#king and sucking, and where the only thing playing on TV were channels featuring the other nutzoids living in their cult-like community-- which they ironically called, Quiet.

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: PhotobucketGo! This movie is both fascinating and disturbing. But I'm asking you to see it anyway, so that you can get the deepest possible understanding that everything you do and say on the internet can and will haunt you for the rest of your living days. And then, maybe you'll consider taking a break from that little screen once in a while.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Sure, if you're one of those people who gets joy from watching others suffer.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: If will certainly make you long for a simpler time, when we used to actually see each other in person. Oh, how I miss human to human connection... And do you remember hugging? That was awesome.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance, and I wouldn't be surprised if it got a shot at the Academy. It's just so topical!

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Internet millionaires are crazy. And not in a good way, like the bi-polar, suicidal, ex-junkies that they lock up in their basements to use as lab rats in their wacky attempts to call themselves artists.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: I always wonder, when a documentary director sticks with a subject for 10 years, how does she know when it's time to stop filming and just make a film already? At the same time, considering her subject's obsession with filming every detail of his life to play on the internet, I can kind of understand her optimism, since she was blessed with a giant amount of pre-existing footage. Which also begs the question: How come I never heard about this place, "Quiet" before?!

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Linear. It starts in 1984, when Josh Harris first discovered the potential of the internet, and clearly and logically takes us through the period of the 90s when anything was possible, to the dot-com crash, to today, when the things you may have done in the 90s are on your permanent record, and will prevent you from ever doing anything cool again... or at least until a movie is made about your life, alerting internet investors that you may actually have a small clue as to what you're talking about.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XSTwfdFwIY

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