SXSW Film Preview: We Live in Public
"Everything that he does is a precursor to something that is going to happen to all of us." -- Interviewee re: Josh Harris, We Live in Public
As social networking becomes more de rigeur, with our parents jumping on the Facebook wagon, and the numbers of Twitterers increasing every day, privacy seems a precious commodity. 10 years ago, when the internet was slowly growing in popularity, artist/visionary/documentary subject Josh Harris must have seen all this coming.
In We Live in Public, acclaimed director Ondi Timoner pieces together footage from two of Harris' past projects, one of which was "Quiet", a chronicle of 100 people living in an underground bunker in Manhattan for 30 days, their every movement recorded (voluntarily) and broadcast online by Harris, until the cops shut it down. Maybe it was the indoor shooting range that did it? Following that experiment, Harris and his girlfriend decided to broadcast their lives 24/7 online for six months—until she had enough and moved out. This from a man who began one of the first online television networks and made millions through web consulting. Harris, "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of," lived in public, and eventually lost his sense of self and his mind. And we could watch it all online.
We Live in Public, which won the grand jury prize at Sundance, asks of us: if we live in public, are we living for ourselves? Or are we living as a product for others? Given Timoner's record of quality work (she also directed the Dandy Warhols pic DIG!) and the deep relevance of the subject matter to our networked times, we expect the screenings of this film to be full, so get there early.
We Live In Public will screen at 4:30pm, Tuesday, March 17th - Austin Convention Center . For more information, including additional screening times, check out the SXSW Film Festival schedule.
