Big Brother Is Watching Juice

We Live In Public
Startup.tragedy
Official Website | Trailer & Mo

Remember the internets prior to the second millennium (that’s 2000 or 2001, depending on your school of dis-thought)? We don’t recall all too much from those dark ages, hispecially since the world wide web landscape has changed so dangs much (for the better) since then. Start-ups came and went and only the strong (or lucky?) survived (watch Startup.com as a good starting point). One story lost in the shuffle is that of web visionary Josh Harris. Harris was an 80s early adapter of the on-line world, and foresaw its limitless possibilities, with plenty o’ money to be made along with it. Eventually he would create Pseudo.com (a place we once hactually interviewed at upon arrival to NY!), a portal of niche video content that was well ahead of its time (youtube what?), and bandwidth. Harris got mad rich, then mad crazy (sometimes dressing as a clown named Luvvy, and sometimes so at ill-advised moments, like meet & greets with investors) and moved on to other interests. What those interests were is where Ondi Timoner(director of the MUSSSSSSSSSSSSS SEEE Dig!)’s doc travels, and soars, and shocks, and is perhaps the best documentary of 2009… that we sadly didn’t see until now

Right around the countdown to Y2K, Harris took his cash and bank rolled an Orwellian social experiment/art project called the Quiet, which put 100 people in a self-contained bunker for a month of non-stop partying, orgies, and… mental torture. All of which was filmed 24-7, with the participants able to monitor each other any time they like, and as privacy and decency dissipated, all hell broke loose (take note Chatroulette!). Watching a rewind of Harris playing Gawd with these peoples literally upset our stomachs and fear for the future, and you truly have to see this to believe it. When that party ended (prematurely), Harris moved onto his next venture, which was an extension of Quiet: We Live In Public. This time he turned the always watching cameras on himself and his then girlfriend, in their own living space. You can probably guess how successful his latest experiment goes, but where does Harris himself go from there? More stuff you gotta see to believe, but lettuce juss say that he’s not really living in or for the public any more

DVD bonus content includes some interesting additional info on the Quiet’s bunker + a nice lil piece on Timoner herself

Living Will’s Lasting Testament: Deadspin/NY Mag/Ebert lover Will Leitch briefly lived in the We Live In Public apartment, while Harris was on vacation/end of his wits. read all about it

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Public is now available on DVD

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…