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SXSW: We Live in Public
‘We Live in Public.’ Few people soared as high as Internet pioneer Josh Harris during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, and few fell so hard after the bust.
Early on, Harris understood the potential of the Web to replace television as a broadband entertainment medium, founding Pseudo.com, the first Internet ‘network.’
He boasted to ‘60 Minutes’ that he would soon be bigger than CBS. And he set up one of the most bizarre live broadcasts in history: the 24-hour recording of 100 people who were living in a New York City bunker.
When they showered, their images were broadcast. Same thing when they went to a bathroom, made love. Everything was fair game, and the private lives became public. After a police raid in early 2000, the project shut down. But Harris continued to ‘live in public’ for six months with his girlfriend on the Internet. When they fought, each one would run to his or her laptop to see what the public thought: Did he win the argument, or did she?
And throughout it all, Harris began to see some holes in his theory that people would be willing to trade their privacy for public recognition.
Director Ondi Timoner, who spent more than a decade tracking Harris, shows not only his prescience but also his startling cluelessness.
‘We Live in Public’ won the top documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
4:30 p.m. today, Austin Convention Center; 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Ave.
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