Director Ondi Timoner has a tendency to stumble upon the most batshit crazy people existing in society, and then spends years documenting their lives. Her wildly acclaimed DIG! won the Sundance Grand Jury Award for documentaries in 2004. This year, she was back with another joyous romp (and another Grand Jury winner) through one man's delirium, and we got to sit down with the documentarian and her subject to find out what We Live In Public was all about.
The film documents internet entrepreneur Josh Harris's attempt to quote/unquote LIVE IN PUBLIC. 80 million dollars rich off of the late-90's e-boom, he set out to create a highly-documented underground society in lower Manhattan. The community was busted by FEMA after a month and deemed a "millennial cult." In the same vein of human experimentation, he then wired his house with cameras and broadcast he and his wife's own lives online. Now the dude's living in Ethiopia, on the run from Johnny Law, with very little to vouch for living in public. Let that be a lesson, Twitterers.