We Live In Public

Ondi Timoner is perhaps best known for her 2004 documentary DiG!, which followed the tumultuous relationship between The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. We Live in Public takes a similarly detailed look at fraught relationships, this time between internet entrepreneur Josh Harris and, well, almost everyone he comes into contact with. He’s a fascinating subject, renowned (among other things) for setting up a Big Brother style art project in 1999 where 100 artists, filmed 24 hours a day, locked themselves into a basement with messy consequences. Harris emerges as a complex and ultimately unlikeable personality and We Live in Public works best as a character study of the troubled pioneer. The documentary doesn’t succeed quite as well in its attempt at a wider commentary on the impact of technology on our lives, however, which means that its more far-reaching observations don’t always have the impact and resonance they were perhaps intended to.