Searched and couldn't find any threads for this on here. Also wasn't sure whether to put this here or on Focused Film Discussion.
Anyway, I wrote up a review for my blog, so I'll just post that:
We Live in Public is a decent documentary, presented with intense bias by the filmmaker. In the end, it's the movies glaring flaw.
The movie is about a guy named Josh Harris who has mommy issues. He was alienated from other kids and his family growing up, so he took solace in watching TV. From there, he became fixated with the video medium and eventually became an important, ahead-of-his-time, internet tycoon in the 90's. To his credit, his ideas were pretty ahead of the times, and in the last 5 years or so, his ideas and predictions have finally proved true. He was worth $80 million at one point, and then he got out of the business. From then on, he conducted a few "social experiments" in the vein of Big Brother/Gestapo/Stasi surveillance.
His first experiment was called "Quiet." In short, Harris took his millions and built a pretty impressive compound in some NYC warehouse space. It was equipped with sleeping quarters, bathrooms, showers, a bar, an 80-foot dining table, performance space, and even a gun range (fully stocked with pistols, rifles, and machine guns). The compound was then inhabited by about a hundred people who would all live together communally, where everything was paid for in advance by Harris. The catch was that every single aspect of life would be filmed for other members to see. There were rows of pods/sleeping quarters which were all hooked up with cameras and TV's. These TV's could link up with other sleeping pods and you could talk to the other person or simply watch them. Total invasion of privacy. Everything from sleep, sex, showers, eating, and going to the bathroom was taped. The reason for all of this? Harris thought it was just a matter of time before stuff like this becomes commonplace because of technology and the internet.
This portion of the movie is actually very interesting. (Apart from the fact that Harris is completely full of himself and the people participating in the experiment are akin to the idealistic idiocy that the 60's hippie commune culture exemplified.) Harris' rather obvious prediction was that in time, people would become incredibly stressed because of the constant surveillance and angry with each other because of the total freedom. And of course it happened.
Before the experiment began, Harris made all applicants go through intensive testing and interviews to pick a very specific and exclusive group. Naturally, it ended up being a group of pseudo-artistic-hipster-liberal-free-thinking sillies. During the experiment, Harris implemented very intrusive and intense therapy/interrogations sessions on the people of Quiet. They were forced to confront and talk about their past addictions, suicide attempts, cheating affairs, etc. It made things all the more volatile. Eventually, the whole thing got shut down by the police on New Year's morning of January 1st, 2000. By that time, the whole thing had gone awry.
Harris then moved onto a new experiment where he and his girlfriend at the time decided to turn the cameras on themselves. This experiment was titled "We Live in Public" and it was the same basic premise on a smaller scale. Harris bugged his apartment with tons of cameras and microphones and streamed it live over the internet 24/7. There was a chat room to go along with the live feed, where viewers could chat with each other and Harris and his girlfriend themselves. Just as the first experiment proved, it's fun at first, then it sucks. So eventually it gets the better of the two and things turn very sour. Who would've thought, right?
While these experiments are interesting to watch, both Harris and filmmaker Ondi Timoner are more than a little pretentious to handle. While Harris is a bit interesting and ahead of his time, his ego and grandiose ideas are too much. At one point he claims himself to be "one of the first important artists of the 21st century." Yeah, you and Kanye West. Plus, doesn't it seem like common sense that 24-hour intrusive surveillance would lead to violence and mental breakdown. Does to me at least.
As for filmmaker Ondi Timoner, she presents Harris as a modern-day prophet. The movie begins with a title screen that touts Harris as "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of." But, it's no wonder she's so biased - she was one of the participants of Josh's "Quiet" experiment. Adding to my disgust with her filmmaking, she narrates the movie so awfully that it sounds worse than a bad TV documentary.
I realize that documentaries are inherently one-sided, but at least try and hide your bias. I'd rather be skillfully lied to than forced to think what the filmmaker does.
Anyone else catch this thing?
Anyway, I wrote up a review for my blog, so I'll just post that:
We Live in Public is a decent documentary, presented with intense bias by the filmmaker. In the end, it's the movies glaring flaw.
The movie is about a guy named Josh Harris who has mommy issues. He was alienated from other kids and his family growing up, so he took solace in watching TV. From there, he became fixated with the video medium and eventually became an important, ahead-of-his-time, internet tycoon in the 90's. To his credit, his ideas were pretty ahead of the times, and in the last 5 years or so, his ideas and predictions have finally proved true. He was worth $80 million at one point, and then he got out of the business. From then on, he conducted a few "social experiments" in the vein of Big Brother/Gestapo/Stasi surveillance.
His first experiment was called "Quiet." In short, Harris took his millions and built a pretty impressive compound in some NYC warehouse space. It was equipped with sleeping quarters, bathrooms, showers, a bar, an 80-foot dining table, performance space, and even a gun range (fully stocked with pistols, rifles, and machine guns). The compound was then inhabited by about a hundred people who would all live together communally, where everything was paid for in advance by Harris. The catch was that every single aspect of life would be filmed for other members to see. There were rows of pods/sleeping quarters which were all hooked up with cameras and TV's. These TV's could link up with other sleeping pods and you could talk to the other person or simply watch them. Total invasion of privacy. Everything from sleep, sex, showers, eating, and going to the bathroom was taped. The reason for all of this? Harris thought it was just a matter of time before stuff like this becomes commonplace because of technology and the internet.
This portion of the movie is actually very interesting. (Apart from the fact that Harris is completely full of himself and the people participating in the experiment are akin to the idealistic idiocy that the 60's hippie commune culture exemplified.) Harris' rather obvious prediction was that in time, people would become incredibly stressed because of the constant surveillance and angry with each other because of the total freedom. And of course it happened.
Before the experiment began, Harris made all applicants go through intensive testing and interviews to pick a very specific and exclusive group. Naturally, it ended up being a group of pseudo-artistic-hipster-liberal-free-thinking sillies. During the experiment, Harris implemented very intrusive and intense therapy/interrogations sessions on the people of Quiet. They were forced to confront and talk about their past addictions, suicide attempts, cheating affairs, etc. It made things all the more volatile. Eventually, the whole thing got shut down by the police on New Year's morning of January 1st, 2000. By that time, the whole thing had gone awry.
Harris then moved onto a new experiment where he and his girlfriend at the time decided to turn the cameras on themselves. This experiment was titled "We Live in Public" and it was the same basic premise on a smaller scale. Harris bugged his apartment with tons of cameras and microphones and streamed it live over the internet 24/7. There was a chat room to go along with the live feed, where viewers could chat with each other and Harris and his girlfriend themselves. Just as the first experiment proved, it's fun at first, then it sucks. So eventually it gets the better of the two and things turn very sour. Who would've thought, right?
While these experiments are interesting to watch, both Harris and filmmaker Ondi Timoner are more than a little pretentious to handle. While Harris is a bit interesting and ahead of his time, his ego and grandiose ideas are too much. At one point he claims himself to be "one of the first important artists of the 21st century." Yeah, you and Kanye West. Plus, doesn't it seem like common sense that 24-hour intrusive surveillance would lead to violence and mental breakdown. Does to me at least.
As for filmmaker Ondi Timoner, she presents Harris as a modern-day prophet. The movie begins with a title screen that touts Harris as "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of." But, it's no wonder she's so biased - she was one of the participants of Josh's "Quiet" experiment. Adding to my disgust with her filmmaking, she narrates the movie so awfully that it sounds worse than a bad TV documentary.
I realize that documentaries are inherently one-sided, but at least try and hide your bias. I'd rather be skillfully lied to than forced to think what the filmmaker does.
Anyone else catch this thing?
