PARK CITY, Utah–The Sundance Film Festival is all about film buzz. Word spreads quickly about the biggest tearjerkers, the most overhyped films, the pleasant surprises, and the ones mostly likely to make their way to the cineplex.

Filmmaker Ondi Timoner starts her day Monday, the day of her film’s world premiere, by getting her make-up done professionally. She knows she has many photo shoots ahead.

(Credit: Michelle Meyers/CNET News)

What you don’t hear, however, is what it’s like for the makers of such films as they anticipate showing their work to the world for the very first time. What is their range of emotions as they prepare for what could be a standing ovation or a mass exodus before the credits even roll?

Ondi Timoner, who’s here competing with her documentary, We Live in Public, gave CNET News some insight into the mania of festival life for a filmmaker by allowing us to shadow her Monday, the day of her film’s world premiere. We’ll tell you all about that jam-packed day, but first some background on the film and Timoner.

We Live in Public documents the tumultuous life of Josh Harris, who Timoner refers to as “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of.” It’s a sort of cautionary tale about the effect the Web is having on society.

During the 1990s dot-com boom, Harris was considered a sort of “Warhol of the Web” by creating the first Internet television network, Psuedo.com, and then an underground bunker in Manhattan where 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days before getting shut down as a millennial cult by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the New York police on New Year’s Day 2000.

Harris’ next experiment, which led him to a mental breakdown, was a six-month stint living with his girlfriend under 24-hour live surveillance online, long before the days of Justin TV.

A day in the life of a Sundance filmmaker | Digital Media – CNET News.

But their messages contain hints of the challenges the new U.S. president will face.

Reporting from Washington — World leaders impatient for a new direction for America greeted President Obama’s arrival with exuberance Tuesday but sent telltale warnings of the challenges about to envelop the new chief executive and his administration.

The White House was flooded with leaders’ best wishes, including those of Pope Benedict XVI, who urged Obama to be “the promoter of peace and cooperation between nations.”

At the same time, many of the messages were laden with hints of the caution required in dealing with the troubled times ahead. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative who had a good relationship with President Bush, nevertheless said she hoped that in the new era there would be agreement that “no single country can solve the problems of the world.”

Obama, in a nod to the global sentiment and with Bush seated only a few feet away, left no doubt in his inaugural address that an important part of his audience was on the far side of the horizon.

He promised a new era of American leadership, suggesting that the Bush presidency, with too great a reliance on force, had veered from the U.S. approach that had won World War II and the Cold War.

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World leaders welcome Barack Obama – Los Angeles Times.

A Day of History as New Leader Urges Unity Amid ‘Raging Storms’ of War and Recession

Philadelphia Inquirer/Rapport Press

HANDOFF: Barack Obama was sworn in Tuesday as the nation’s 44th president. More than one million people gathered for the event.With Mr. Obama’s first day on the job scarcely begun, the financial uncertainty facing his presidency made itself felt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4%, its worst inauguration-day performance in history, amid fresh signs of trouble among the nation’s banks.

WASHINGTON — On a day rich in history, Barack Obama took office Tuesday as the 44th president of the U.S., urging Americans to stand together amid the “gathering clouds and raging storms” of war and recession.

The inauguration of the first African-American to lead the world’s most powerful country drew a crowd of well over one million to the National Mall here. In his 18-minute address, Mr. Obama called on Americans to return to the values of “hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity” that have seen the country through past crises.

With Mr. Obama’s first day on the job scarcely begun, the financial uncertainty facing his presidency made itself felt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4%, its worst inauguration-day performance in history, amid fresh signs of trouble among the nation’s banks.

At exactly noon, by law, Mr. Obama became president. Placing his hand on a Bible once used by Abraham Lincoln, he took the oath using his full name, Barack Hussein Obama — a moment that stood in contrast to episodes on the long campaign trail in which detractors would occasionally stress his middle name in a derogatory way.

Obama Sworn In as President – WSJ.com.

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