We Live in Public

Released Aug 28, 2009

1 hr. 30 min.

Documentary

List

82%

51 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In 1999, Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris recruits dozens of young men and women who agree to live in underground apartments for weeks at a time while their every movement is broadcast online. Soon, Harris and his girlfriend embark on their own subterranean adventure, with cameras streaming live footage of their meals, arguments, bedroom activities and bathroom habits. This documentary explores the role of technology in our lives, as it charts the fragile nature of dot-com economy.

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Critics Consensus

This documentary about Josh Harris' surveillance-as-art project exposes the problems of privacy in the internet age and asks provocative questions about the power of ego in a place where everything is on display.

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lariste l

Established for the general and festival audience with the dramatic, and occasionally hilarious pitfalls-of-the-music-biz documentary Dig!, silver-spoon documentarian Ondi Timoner attempts a more conceptual, and original doco about the surveillance state and people's apparent willingness to forego personal privacy to be part of the 21st C technological community. Movie is: curiously shallow and unaffecting. Little (if any) powerful content appears as the filmmaker explores surveillance-as-multimedia-project, film lacks narrative direction and memorable conflict.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If you know anything about the internet you know you can send emails to your friends... that's the 21st century, in other words "yesterday". The documentary "We Live In Public" by director Ondi Timoner, released August 28, 2009 profiles one of the greatest internet pioneer Josh Harris. The gist is that we live in a society of technological growth and social networking, making it easier to lose privacy in this so called internet age. "We Live In Public" reveals the effect the web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of one of the well known pioneers in the world, artist and visionary Josh Harris it puts mids in a new fresh perspective towards the internet. Director Ondi Timoner documented his crazy life for more than a decade to create a perfect tale of what to expect as the virtual world as it takes control of us 24/7. The documentary was very different and took place in the late 1900's. It discussed the start of the internet business its effects on the younger generation. They called it the "dotcom kids" and how the younger people were becoming rich and wealthy by dropping out of college and investing time on the Internet. The story followed the in the eyes of Josh Harris. Throughout his early life he went on doing different human experiences that really put his name out. Harris was involved in the early days of compuserve era, and was the founder of Pseudo.com, which forecasted audio and video Webcasting, Youtube, Hulu and countless other streamers. His thought process and thinking was ahead of everyone at that time and was a man who saw the world vividly with new ideas on what the future would hold. This film was very strange but so remarkable at the same time. It was mostly footages of Harris bizarre social experiments. It had crazy scenes of people spending 24 hours a day getting loaded, violent and naked all in a live stream with cameras. That was one of his largest social experiment that proved that people living with each other having cameras on them 24/7 was all cool and hip at the beginning but as time progressed it showed another side of people. It changed people's moods and they felt as it their privacy was being violated. After the new millennium his experient was put to a stop by the law, but he didn't stop. He went to take live streaming to a whole new level but putting his life and his partner on livestream media with thousands of viewers. Taking place in his apartment with video camras that streamed every move in "Weliveinpublic.com". It did turn out that well and took a very bad downfall both for himself and his partner. The film was very interesting and ahead of time. Now we have so many people on social media pt=utting live streams and "vlogs" Video blog of their life every day. Was Harris someone who was exploring the nature of connection and the high tech age? Did he predict the future. Despite many people calling him crazy and strange due to his social experience I think he was a genius. Today we have the new generation doing what he started almost 20 years ago. The experience he did with complete strangers was incredible and his motivation to to try something completely new was amazing to watch. -- Yared Asmelash

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

At first, I saw Josh Harris as a cross between a social scientist and Jay Gatsby. He seemed somewhat disturbed, but overall quite brilliant and tech-savvy. Then he initiated the "Quiet" experiment. I don't see how anyone can think of this man as a genius after the experiment (if you can even call it that). To me, it seems as though he transitioned from an intelligent and ambitious man with a few strange but neutral fascinations to an absolute sociopath with a tremendous God complex. The experiment was completely unethical, and those who took part in it were revolting. If this is truly the future of the technological culture we live in today, then I will give away my possessions and live with the Amish.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I don't know if this documentary wants to explore America's love affair with televised exhibitionism or examine the man who prophesied it, either way it is compelling viewing.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

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Audience Member

Ce qu'il faut pour vivre, de Benoit Pilon.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

At once a biopic of an Internet pioneer and bizarre genius, with an overall theme of how our lives online are indeed, public.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

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Ondi Timoner

Director

Josh Harris

Actor

Tom Harris

Actor

Carlos Alvarez

Actor

Robert Galinsky

Actor

Ondi Timoner

Actor

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

Disturbing yet fascinating...

May 4, 2020

Full Review

Nicolas Rapold

Film Comment Magazine

Timoner's laudable impulse to chronicle recent history is wasted on insipid overstuffed montages and redundant testimonials, skirting real engagement with the culture in favor of cover-story hooks.

Oct 20, 2014

Full Review

Michael O'Sullivan

Washington Post

Josh Harris focuses the lens on himself. You probably have never heard of him. And when the film is over, you may wish you still hadn't.

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 11, 2009

Full Review

Nikki Baughan

Roll Credits

[Ondi] Timoner presents a gripping portrait of a man who is, as so often the case, part genius and part crackpot.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 25, 2019

Full Review

Sarah Manvel

Critic's Notebook

Ms. Timoner's well-crafted and intelligent film is a cautionary tale about the unthinking way we are living in public now. To use the cliché and call it thought-provoking is an understatement.

Aug 9, 2018

Full Review

Rob Nelson

Utne Reader

We Live in Public is the rare documentary film whose tapping of the American zeitgeist feels downright supernatural.

Mar 12, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

In 1999, Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris recruits dozens of young men and women who agree to live in underground apartments for weeks at a time while their every movement is broadcast online. Soon, Harris and his girlfriend embark on their own subterranean adventure, with cameras streaming live footage of their meals, arguments, bedroom activities and bathroom habits. This documentary explores the role of technology in our lives, as it charts the fragile nature of dot-com economy.

Director: Ondi Timoner
Executive Producer: John Battsek, Sean McKeough, Vladimir Radovanov
Screenwriter: Ondi Timoner
Distributor: Interloper Films
Production Co: Interloper Films
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 28, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 20, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $41.7K

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