Philadelphia Film Festival 2009

The sordid tale of Josh Harris is a compelling but cautionary one indeed. In the early 80s, Harris earned his money through the creation of Pseudo, one of the very first websites to contain live interaction over the internet through continuous audio feeds and webcasting. This seemed like a perfect technological advancement. However, as time went on, Harris’ fascination with intensely personal machine driven interactions became an obsession. He embarked on complex series of 24-hour surveillance projects that included building Quiet, an artificial sex-crazed society in an underground bunker with communal showers, a steady drug flow and constant video interaction. Tragedies quickly began to find their way into Josh’s experiments as he continued to prove his theories, but often at a great personal cost.

We Live in Public marks the second Sundance Grand Jury Prize for director Ondi Timoner and it’s not hard to see why. Her palpable sense of the nature of pop culture is perfectly conveyed in her unique directorial signature. Arriving at a moment in history when we stand at the brink of potentially giving ourselves over to the machine, Timoner’s terrifying and poignant film reminds us of the humanity that lies behind natural, physical interaction. Terrifying and poignant, We Live in Public is one documentary you won’t be able to tear your eyes from. –– Michael Lerman