We Live in Public Review

“We Live in Public Blog”

General Film Information

We Live in Public is a wonderful documentary film released in 2009. Documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner created the idea of the film. Although the presence of Timoner isn’t obvious throughout the film, one can assume that he’s very passionate about the film topic. The Initial point the film exhibits the life of Justin Harris: “the greatest internet pioneer you’ve never heard of.” However, the underlining theme the film explores relates to the evolutionary history of the public Internet world. The way in which Justin Harris connects to this theme is through the fact that he was a true pioneer in the field. Although throughout the film Justin Harris was constantly criticized, it was obvious that Harris was able to predict the future in the technology’s influence on public exposure. The documentary portrays several of Harris’ digital experiments that tested such exposure methods. The film is structured in a very chronological order, following Harris’ career from the successful beginning to his isolated end. Film altogether was brilliantly formatted. The film maker successfully portrayed great organizational skills during the production of the documentary.

Documentary Aspects

We Live in Public is an interesting example of an observational documentary. Throughout the entirety of the film, the camera acts as a bystander. The presence of the filmmaker is portrayed as a “fly on the wall,” similar to most other observational documentaries. The perspective of Justin Harris presents itself as being the most commonly referred to throughout the film. However, other perspectives such as Harris’ family and people that had come in contact with Justin Harris while he was creating his specific media and technology based idea. One major convention used during the film is the use of interviews. Many interviewees include those of Harris’ associates and family. Furthermore, the film incorporates a lot of “real people,” in order to present certain ideas with a variety of different perspectives.

Another convention used in We Live in Public is archival footage. A lot of the shots used are from scenarios shot during Harris’ former media experiments.

Strengths of the Film

I felt that the film incorporated a lot of successful thought-provoking archival footage. This strength helped the viewer better understand certain scenarios and how they connect to the underlying plot. For example, the film showed a lot of interesting shots from Justin Harris’ futuristic hotel. The film also presented a lot of good factual information. This strong factuality aspect helped portray specific ideas in the film quite well. I felt that the film had an outstanding introductory montage. This positive introduction allowed the further to get an overview of the evolutionary history of Internet exposure, which is the film’s basis. A final yet important strength found in the film is the quality of the interviews that were used. The interviews with Justin Harris were extremely interesting. They definitely helped ensure the viewer’s comprehension of specific scenarios that directly related to Justin Harris’ career progression.

Cultural Values in the Film

This film portrays our current Internet culture in a way that most people surely overlook. One positive outcome that could generate from this film is that it could help educate many viewers on a topic many people in today’s society are naïve about. However, one negative repercussion that could form as a result of this film being released is social networking sites could get the wrong idea. For example, sites like: Facebook, Twitter and MySpace could feel that this film damages their image. This film makes a significant statement about the world we currently live in and the world we are moving towards. This film implies that majority of the population today chooses to live in public as a result of social networks. Furthermore, the documentary implies that the further the population progresses into the future, the more publicized our lives will become.

All in all, I felt this film was an extremely well created documentary. I feel that Timoner’s theme successfully progresses and develops further throughout the film. I would surely recommend this film to anyone interested in seeing a very thought-provoking documentary! The thought-provoking and factual aspects of the film make it surely one of the top observational documentaries that anyone should watch!