Bird's Eye View

We Live in Public: An interview with Ondi Timoner

"Riveting - a compelling cautionary tale." - New York Times

On the 40th anniversary of the invention of the Internet, We Live in Public reveals the effect the web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of  artist, futurist and visionary, Josh Harris.  It has already recieved rave reviews.  We were lucky enough to catch up with Director Ondi Timoner about the film, whats she is planning next and being the only person to have ever won the prestigious Sundance Grand Jury Prize twice.

We live in Public premieres in UK cinemas this Friday 13th November. Visit the movie’s website here

We Live in Public is such an incredible achievement, especially considering it was 10 years in the making. Can you tell us how it was to document a subject over this period of time?

It wasn’t continual; I was Shooting DiG! when Josh Harris called me.  He asked me if I had any interest in documenting cultural history! He wouldn’t tell me what it was about but he told me he was getting some artists together to do something amazing for the end of the millennium.  So I went to meet him at the Bunker and I saw he was building this amazing space and moving scaffolding in to create the Capsule hotel. This other man was there hanging cameras all over the place so I asked what he was doing and he said I’m putting up 100 surveillance cameras – it was incredible and I was in.

At that point it was just about capturing the moment so I documented the event on camera and later Josh asked me to make a film. There were several 100 hours of footage from the bunker. I made a rough cut in Jan 2001 and sent it to Josh. I then had to go and raise money for DiG! and when I came back I realised that Josh had stolen all the masters.  I called him and asked what was going on and he said he didn’t like the way it looked.  I now know that at that time things were falling apart for him – he owed a lot of money - he was falling apart.

In 2004 Bush won the US Presidential election and I started making the film Join Us about mind control.  As I was finishing that film I saw all these really public and personal messages that people were putting up on facebook – and it reminded me of Josh Harris and his projects. I had this lightening flash and that’s what motivated me to finish the film. That flash turned the film into this huge cautionary tale. I felt that I needed to alert people to our addiction – that we needed to be conscious that we are addicted to our little virtual boxes i.e. our Blackberrys, iphones and our social networking sites.

Ondi Timoner

During the process of filming were you always keen to make it into a feature or were you waiting to see how things panned out?

It was always going to be a feature but Josh wanted it to be just about the bunker – a film about the most incredible party in NY history - and I think he wanted to finish it for that. I was going to do what he wanted but it was divine intervention. I was able to make the film but I didn’t right away I did Join us instead. It was amazing because I couldn’t finish the film until the facebook status issue realisation and then it was like “I need to finish the film right now.” I went from almost being blind to it to being so clear.

The visual aesthetic of the film is very interesting as it reflects the time in which the filming took place through VHS / digital technology used; you can really see how revolutions in technology have affected art / photography in the last couple of decades.  Was this something you consciously crafted and emphasised when making the film?

I’m a huge fan of form and all my films feel like what they’re about. I’m not a big fan of traditional talking heads documentaries - all my films are about experiencing the journey.

It needs to be as visceral as possible. I needed to show the effects of the dot com era - that rush, the hedonism and freedom that it caused pre 9/11. It was incredible archive in the early part of the film. Then in the bunker the motive of virtual box idea that is in the entire film came through. I wanted the graphics to be top rate so that the information we were providing really showed here’s where we are in society in terms of the technology revolution. It’s a film about the internet and the future and so it had to be beautiful and slick. I had an incredibly talented team who gathered together because it was like the film wanted to be here.

I read that the film was edited down from 5000 hours of footage.  How easy was the process of selecting material and editing this down into the final cut?

It was literally like I had this lightening flash and I knew where the movie had to end up. I had an incredibly talented team who made it happen. I think the film wanted to be here - the universe wanted it to be here.

Where did you first meet Josh Harris - the internet pioneer and visionary much of the film centres around - and can you tell us about your relationship with him?

He called me to come and film in the bunker.  With regards to our relationship now - we say that now we’ve got a media marriage.  I appreciate his bravery but I obviously think he’s missing an element of humanity.  I was wary of him after he took the masters.  I don’t tend to judge my characters too much - I think what I liked about him at first is that he’s atomic- he makes things happen.  He was driven to show us something  but ultimately this documentary is a cautionary tale.

In fact, it became a double cautionary tale;  you can make your life too public and that the internet is not an intimate medium.  Josh  was saying this is how it’s going to be 10 years ago.  I saw him as a visionary – he so desperately craved fame himself.  He thinks getting and craving attention online,  is about fame, but I think it’s about connection and not feeling alone.  We think that the internet is connecting us to more people so we put more out there of our personal lives.  Josh would say that we are becoming less and less individual and we’re losing our individuality.  It feels like we’re gaining it on the internet – we can personalise our facebook pages etc but actually we’re losing personal connections.  We have these precepts that you can chose how to make your page but we’re actually we’re losing our ability to connect with others.  Some kids are losing their ability to form positive facial expressions.  It’s an inevitable evolutionary process.  We should all think about how much we check our email and social networking sites and how much that’s increased in the last 5 years.

The film suggests that the majority of us ‘Live in Public’ now with recent

Quiet - 30 days in an underground NY bunker with 110 cameras

technological revolutions.  How do you feel about the internet today?

We wouldn’t have been able to finish this film if it wasn’t for the internet. I brought on a 2nd editor in Sept 2008 to help me finish it and he and I didn’t meet for 2 months – we did it all through I-chat instant messenger etc. And really we’re putting the film out thanks to the internet. Most of our campaign is online - there’s a widget that you can share on your facebook pages which allows the facebook audience to share it. The internet democratises the message – everyone has a voice. Our poster was the first poster to include tweets in the poster so Ashton Kutcher tweeted that he liked he film and then we got 40,000 hits in 24 hours. This is the age that we live in. People post a lot of stupid things online but it also allows us to directly share our films - its incredible that way but I think that the virtual world is taking over and as josh says we’ll realise it catches us. I think we’re realising that now but I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future we have bar codes and chips in our arms with our blood types, house keys, everything because we’ve been convinced that that’s the way to live our life. Its been a fascinating film to make. I think it’s inevitable that some of us are going to hold on to the physical world. Its one thing to call a Starbucks drink a venti – its not a venti, its coffee. Its another thing for facebook to call people your friends. They’re not your friends – they’re your facebook friends. Through the internet and social networking we’re connecting 50 times more people a day but with 50% less depth.

I loved the soundtrack of the film and felt it added a lot to its meaning - please, tell us more about the process of putting this together.

It was gut instinct and collaborating with Josh Altman.  We just chose songs that we liked and that were appropriate to the story. Dance really helped us. Many of the artists made it possible for us to use their music as we had very little money. David Bowie, 9 Inch Nails, and Sigur Ros all let us use their music as they liked the film. Sigur Ros said we could use their music after they saw the film.

The fact that you are the only ever twice Grand Jury Prize winner is an inspiration, especially in view of the fact that only 7% of filmmakers are women. Do you think that being a woman has been a factor in your success in any way - whether positively or negatively?

I think that my gender allows me to not intimidate people as much as men. Yet I think that a woman with a camera does intimidate people. My first film is called 3,000 Miles and a Woman with a Video Camera. I went across the whole country with my camera and I asked this guy in Nebraska what he feared most and he said:  “A Woman with a Camera.”

It’s kind of crazy how few women directors there are but it is what it is. I feel a real kinship with other women directors – especially female documentary directors as there are so few of us that when we meet we can talk forever. I’ve always been able to get done what I need to get done so its hard to tell where I haven’t got a job because of being a woman but I’m really glad to be part of women’s advancement in the world – to be seen as an example as the only person to win Sundance twice and to show people that women can make stuff happen.

Women are capable of a lot of tracks running in our head and the same time and we’re sensitive – we can see connections. My films about taking people on a journey through a narrative. Documentaries were really unpopular in the 90’s and the reason why  people didn’t watch docs in the 90’s was because they were boring so I really wanted show people how life really is by taking them on a journey through a narrative.  DiG! was like you can’t believe you are watching something that’s so real and yet it is.

What’s next for you? Any projects in the pipeline?

I’m making a film about climate change. Its probably the most positive film about climate change as its all about the solutions and the research and development behind them. It’ll be really controversial.

Also developing story of Robert Maplethorpe film called The Perfect Moment – got the rights on that so its currently in development.

See We live in Public in UK cinemas from Friday 13th November. Find out more about the film on the First Weekenders Club section of our website