MUBI

Ondi Timoner has a habit of making the subjects in her documentaries look VERY BAD. At this point, I’m surprised anyone would allow her to make a documentary about them. Anton Newcombe of the Brianjonestown Massacre is the most obvious example. By the end of ‘Dig’ (a movie i included in my top 50 movies of the decade list), Newcombe came off looking like a narcissistic asshole. In her 2009 documentary; ‘We Live In Public’, Josh Harris doesn’t come off THAT bad. By the end of the movie, you do feel kinda sorry for him, but part of you will also dislike him as well. ‘We Live in Public’ (a movie i had a chance to see @ IFC last year but missed out) is the documentary about the downfall of Josh Harris. A self proclaimed artist and innovator in the early days of the internet. The documentary focuses on his biggest project/experiment: “Quiet, We Live in Public”. A big brother-type experiment were people lived together and were monitored by Harris 24/7 on the internet (this took place some time in the late 90’s). Eventually, he turned the cameras himself, and for a 6 month period he streamed his life over the internet, which eventually led to him having a mental breakdown, losing his girlfriend and flushing most of money down the toilet due to the cost of keeping the project going. Although the documentary presents him as a ‘failure’, Ondi Timoner still makes it very clear that social networks like myspace & facebook and reality shows like big brother have all been inspired by Harris in one way or another. Thanks to HULU, you can watch the movie right here…