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.
