We Live In Public

NEW DOCS

A look at a frenzied decade in the life of Josh Harris, internet pioneer, social engineer, and performance artist. In the weeks leading up to Y2K, Harris launched his social experiment, “Quiet: We Live in Public.” Transforming a New York City basement into an Orwellian hotel meets house party, he captured absolutely everything his hundred or so guests did on camera. After FEMA shut down the party as a millennial cult, Harris outfitted his SoHo apartment with webcams, streaming his entire life—from bathroom to bedroom—online for all to see. A visionary who anticipated the inexorable erosion of privacy that fuels reality TV and Facebook, Harris was eventually undone by his own 24-hour surveillance. Filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s chronicle of Harris’s flirtation with the future is a provocative rumination on the sometimes bizarre ways in which technology shapes human relationships and identity.  SB

Director

Ondi Timoner

Producers

Ondi Timoner, Keirda Bahruth

Editors

Josh Altman, Ondi Timoner

Cinematographers

Ondi Timoner, Vasco Nunes

Release Year

2008

Festival Year

2009

Country

United States

Run Time

88 minutes