We Live in Public

In this mesmerizing documentary, acclaimed filmmaker Ondi Timoner masterfully weaves a tale of obsession, innovation, and the blurred lines between reality and virtual existence. At its core is Josh Harris (Josh Harris), a pioneer in the early days of the Internet, who boldly predicted a future where people would freely share their personal lives online, seeking fame and significance. As the founder of Jupiter Communications, an internet market research firm, and Pseudo.com, the first internet-based television network, Harris has been a driving force behind many of the online social platforms we know today, including MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube.

As Timoner's camera captures the highs and lows of Harris' journey, we witness his meteoric rise to fame in the 1990s, when he threw extravagant parties that brought together the who's who of the downtown NYC Internet scene. His innovative spirit led to the creation of groundbreaking chat rooms, streaming audio, and online television networks, earning him the moniker "Warhol of the Web." However, as Harris' experiments with the Internet and media consumption became increasingly intense, he found himself at odds with reality.

Through a series of candid interviews, we see Harris grappling with the consequences of his vision, which ultimately led to his downfall. From being a millionaire to becoming exiled and broke, Harris' story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of becoming consumed by one's own creation. As he navigates the ever-shifting landscape of the Internet, Harris' journey raises profound questions about the impact of technology on our social interactions and personal identities.

With We Live in Public, Timoner presents a gripping exploration of the intersection between humanity and technology, as well as the blurred lines between reality and virtual existence. Through Harris' story, we are forced to confront the future that awaits us all, as we increasingly live, work, and love through media and technology.

The poignant backstory of Harris unfolds like a rich tapestry, weaving together the threads of his lonely childhood and his quest for connection in adulthood. As the youngest of seven, Harris was often overlooked by his parents, finding solace in the glowing screen of television that nurtured his electronic palate. He claims to have been raised on a diet of Gilligan's Island reruns, forging an unlikely bond with the castaways' island paradise.

As he navigated the dotcom boom of the mid-1990s, Harris leveraged theories that initially propelled him to success as an Internet pioneer. However, these same ideas ultimately contributed to his mental unraveling. Undeterred, Harris continued to orchestrate a spectacle, placing himself and those around him at the center of a futuristic experiment where individuals would willingly surrender their private lives in pursuit of public acclaim.

In 1999, Harris transformed his Lower Manhattan penthouse into an underground bunker, welcoming over one hundred participants who traded their individuality for membership in a synthetic society. Each "pod" was equipped with its own surveillance camera and channel, broadcasting the residents' daily lives through a closed-circuit network. The group also underwent artillery training and psychological interrogations to captivate the cameras.

FEMA's January 1st, 2000, raid on Harris's Millennium Cult marked the end of his experiment, prompting him to take the concept to its logical extreme.

As the unwitting subject of a 24/7 surveillance experiment, Josh Harris (Josh Harris) found himself under the unblinking gaze of 32 motion-controlled cameras that monitored every aspect of his life, from the most intimate moments in his bedroom to the mundane rituals of daily life. His loft was transformed into a virtual aquarium, as every move he made was broadcasted live on weliveinpublic.com for six months, with the added goal of conceiving in public. The experiment quickly spiraled out of control, as the constant stream of chatter and commentary from online viewers began to erode his personal relationships and mental well-being. With his fortunes already ravaged by the dotcom crash and his mind reeling from the invasion of privacy, Harris retreated to an apple farm in upstate New York for five years, severing ties with the media and fame that had once consumed him.

During this period of seclusion, Harris's prophetic warnings about the rise of social networking platforms like Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook began to manifest in reality. His visionary predictions were being realized without his direct involvement, leaving him feeling disconnected from the very world he had once sought to shape.

Harris eventually re-emerged with a new creation, "Operator 11," an online video hub that allowed users to create and broadcast their own content. However, this venture came too late, as YouTube had already cornered the market with its iconic slogan, "Broadcast Yourself." With his remaining funds depleted by Operator 11's failure, Harris was left financially ruined. Driven by a burning desire to prove himself as a true artistic innovator of the 21st century, he vanished into Ethiopia, leaving behind a world that had long since caught up to – and surpassed – his own pioneering ideas.

In a cinematic odyssey that delves deep into the labyrinthine corridors of memory, Sundance Award-Winning director Ondi Timoner (in collaboration with Interloper Films) has been meticulously charting the extraordinary narrative of Josh Harris since his ascendance to fame in 1999. Like her previous critically acclaimed films DIG! and JOIN US, We Live In Public embarks on a daring expedition into the uncharted territories of a world we would otherwise never have the privilege of glimpsing. Through a unique blend of visually arresting vérité footage, skillfully woven together with a dramatic narrative, Timoner takes documentary filmmaking to unprecedented heights.

The cinematic canvas is further enriched by Harris's peculiar predilection for chronicling every aspect of his life and the world around him. This obsessive desire for self-documentation yields a treasure trove of over 3,400 hours of footage, carefully curated over the past decade. As we shape this vast archive into a mesmerizing hour-and-a-half journey, we are treated to an immersive adventure that whisks us away on a thrilling ride through our recent history.

With the cinematic equivalent of a time machine, We Live In Public transports viewers back to an era not so distant, when life unfolded at a fundamentally different pace. A time before the advent of web 2.0, before the internet had seized control of our lives, and before Harris himself was acutely aware of the dawn of this new digital horizon - a phenomenon he perceived as mere smoke on the horizon, awaiting its eventual manifestation.