What an event!  Chicago THREW DOWN on behalf of the theatrical premiere of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC this weekend.  Opening night was great at the gorgeous indie film mecca, the Music Box Theater.  We had a packed house, an excellent Q+A that was webcast live thanks to our friends at i^3 Hypermedia, and then we all headed over to the AAA Building for the fete.

One of our executive producers, Sean McKeough, is a Chi-town man, and he spearheaded this “we live in public experience” afterparty for friends of the films and opening night audience members.  Not only did we have fire dancers, free booze, a photobooth and acrobats, we had pods that were rigged up with cameras and screens, and each pod provided a live feed to the others.  Check out some pod pics….

We will be uploading new photo albums shortly, including more pics from the Chicago madness!

Thanks again to Roger Ebert for giving us FOUR OUT OF FOUR STARS!  Check out his review HERE.

Want to know more about the pods from the original We Live In Public experiment?  Click HERE.

Chicagoans, GET THEE TO THE MUSIC BOX while you can still catch us.  Not a Chicagoan?  Tell your Windy friends…

Tonight we open at the Music Box theater in the Windy City and we are getting raves from all the major Chicago rags.  BUY TICKETS HERE — Check it out!

Chicago Sun-Times
“This is a remarkable film about a strange and prophetic man.”
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091014/REVIEWS/910149994

Chicago Tribune
“Here’s a cautionary tale for the virtual campfire… genuinely terrifying.”
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/talking_pictures/2009/10/we-live-in-public-3-stars.html

Chicago Reader
“[Timoner] uses her access to create a frightening portrait of a man whose technological genius fails to compensate for his gaping emotional deficits… CRITIC’S CHOICE”
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/MovieTimes?oid=1178675

Come to the 7:30pm screening at the Music Box tonight to see Ondi and Josh live for a Q+A, or catch it WEBCAST at 9pm central time on our site, weliveinpublicthemovie.com.  We are having a party at the AAA Building in Wicker Park after the Q+A — if you come to the Music Box today, keep your ticket stub for entry into festivities.  Buy tickets for the Music Box event tonight or click HERE for more info about our theatrical run in Chicago!

Wow, what a week for great reviews!  As we continue our theatrical run at the Roxie in San Francisco, open at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, TX and play at the Vancouver International Film Festival, we continue to feel the love from journalists and bloggers.  Check it out!

Wired Magazine
Review: Smart We Live in Public Probes Web Genius’ Hubris

“Timoner… deftly treads a tightrope between admiration and skepticism for her central character… a whale of a good story.”

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Blog

“There’s no question that this is one of the best documentaries of the year…”

Vancouver Sun: Review

“(Critic’s pick) We Live in Public:  Ondi Timoner has a way of making non-fiction films feel entirely personal… In her award-winning follow up to Dig!, she takes us deep into the dark heart of dot-com millionaire and disgraced internet pioneer Josh Harris. Harris was the first person who saw humanity move toward virtual encounters, and set up a performance piece involving a community of subterranean pods. Watching the social network short-circuit and the entire fabric of civility shred before your eyes can be very compelling, and Timoner doesn’t miss a syncopated beat in this detailed study of public personality, and the self denied. Harris may remain a complete enigma by the final frames, but Timoner captures the blurry line between who we really are, and what we pretend to be.”

The Vancouver Sun
VIFF: Sex, drugs and screaming matches for all the world to see in We Live in Public documentary

“…a provocative and compelling examination of dot-com millionaire Harris and his cutting-edge art projects that attempted to plumb the profound differences between our understanding of private and public space…Through it all, Timoner’s camera bears witness to each subtle shift in Harris’s persona as he attempts to bargain with his own public image, and sell the notion that he’s just so far ahead of his time, he’s doomed to be ridiculed in the puny minds of his peers.”

Spieler
Ondi Timoner’s We Live In Public At The BFI

“Award-winning director, Ondi Timoner (DIG!), documented his tumultuous life for more than a decade to create a riveting, cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world inevitably takes control of our lives.”

ZHIV – a blog about nothing
Two Movies for Bloggers: Julie/Julia and We Live in Public

“The film tells a truly amazing story and it’s quite disturbing…  Go see We Live In Public if you want a better idea of what’s really going on and where this whole thing might be headed.”

Fan The Fire Magazine Blog
London Film Festival: Film Review: We Live in Public

“There are three things that may never cease to fascinate me: the early 90s (because it was so recent, and is considered by the generation who shape our conscious to be irrelevant in comparison to their “special” generation of the 60s, and yet it was so vibrant and culturally rich); the internet (because nobody is capable of predicting where it will go… it is like a wild frontier, but every time someone thinks they have discovered California a whole new plain appears before them); and finally men (and I use that word to denote a member of my species, not necessarily my gender) who seem to have it all, but then manage to throw it all away… If you feel like you are interested in any or all of the above, then you really need to see Ondi Timoner’s ‘We Live In Public’.”

VIFF.org

“Timoner’s investigation into Harris’ past exploits couldn’t be more timely. The dotcom mogul’s sometimes sadistic “social experiments” evidence that he was well ahead of the curve in recognizing and exploiting the fact that a) we love to watch and b) we love to be watched… Fascinating.”

All These Wonderful Things by AJ Schnack

“…one has to admire Timoner’s innovative thinking toward the promotion of her film.”

Movie City News — Video Interview w/Ondi Timoner

We are coming to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for our Texan theatrical run, beginning Friday October 9th!
Thanks for the warm welcome, Austin Chronicle!  Check out their review:

The Austin Chronicle
“Timoner, who also directed the now-classic rocker doc Dig!, makes a bold and trenchant argument, via Harris’ pseudomorphically perverse life, that we are all now “slaves to little boxes,” and it’s true, Tweetpeeps, isn’t it? [4 STARS] “

Director Ondi Timoner will be at the Friday and Saturday night shows for post-screening Q+As.  Come out and bring your friends if you are in the neighborhood and make sure to tell your Austin-based friends about us!

SCREENING TIMES AND TICKETS HERE

So much going on… WE LIVE IN PUBLIC is still playing at the NuArt in LA through tomorrow, Thursday Oct 1, and then we open at the Roxie in San Francisco this Friday, October 2.   Come on out, Californians, and catch us in theaters while you can!  And tell your friends!
L.A.  BUY TICKETS HERE
S.F.  BUY TICKETS HERE

Here’s a brand new round-up of the press and blog mentions we’ve had of late.  You love WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and we love you too!

Documentary.org
“A suggestion for anyone considering DIY distribution for your project: make sure you have a spokesperson for your film who is as charismatic as filmmaker Ondi Timoner.”
http://www.documentary.org/content/we-live-public-director-ondi-timoner-shares-stories-doc-u

LA Times
“Aggressively hip…”
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-indiefocus27-2009sep27,0,5046431.story

Twin Cities Pioneer Press
“Startlingly good…”
http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_13434642?nclick_check=1
All These Wonderful Things – AJ Schnack
“One has to admire Timoner’s innovative thinking toward the promotion of her film..”
http://edendale.typepad.com/weblog/2009/09/the-monday-brief-indie-film-in-hell-the-bloodbath-cinevegas-polanski-but-signs-of-hope-with-ondi-tim.html

Birmingham Weekly
“Director Ondi Timoner’s fascinating new documentary We Live in Public follows the life of Internet pioneer Josh Harris, who had a number of wildly innovative ideas but tempered them with his own special brand of eccentricity.”
http://www.bhamweekly.com/2009/09/24/sidewalk-highlights-saturday/

Premium Hollywood
“Unlike her remarkable “DiG!,” about the cultish neo-psychedelic rock band, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, or “Join Us,” about an actual religious cult, this time the cult is not just a few fanatics, it’s you and me.”
http://www.premiumhollywood.com/2009/09/25/hanging-with-the-new-flesh/

The Suffolk Journal
“You checked your Facebook today, didn’t you? When you logged on, whose latest pictures did you creep? What wall posts did you read?… If Ondi Timoner’s latest documentary We Live In Public proves anything, it’s that everyone’s entire lives, or select parts of our lives, will be played out through the Internet.”
http://media.www.suffolkjournal.net/media/storage/paper632/news/2009/09/23/Arts/Do.We.Live.On.The.Web.Too.Much-3780711.shtml

Milwaukee Film
“I realized that this story is about us…it is a cautionary tale about how the internet can and is affecting most all of our lives. It is looking ten years back, when there was no broadband, and predicting a future where we could be exponentially caught in the virtual web.”
http://milwaukeefilm.blogspot.com/2009/09/we-live-in-public.html

You Will Be Forever
“Timoner sets out with We Live in Public to tell the story of yet another walking cautionary tale in Josh Harris who, as Anton Newcombe did for artists everywhere in DIG!, will inevitably shake us all to the core about what the future brings for all of us as we increasingly live, work and love through media and technology.”
http://youwillbeforever.blogspot.com/2009/09/we-live-in-public-spoiler.html

SF Gate
“When Ondi Timoner made ‘Dig!’ in 2004, times were flush for niche films, and her music documentary easily found a buyer. This year, Timoner hoped for similar results when ‘We Live in Public’ picked up the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize…”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/25/PKJ019O5JF.DTL

Movie City News
“Fascinating, if occasionally frightening…”
http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/dretzka/2009/090925.html

Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
“Friday’s pick — Ondi Timoner, director of “Dig!,” chronicled Harris for a decade, and her film combines his footage with her own for a portrait of his fast rise and faster fall. The result, “We Live in Public,” won the best documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival.”
http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/movies/61325112.html

LaughTears
“Ondi transforms cultural metacognition, especially in her compelling new film WE LIVE IN PUBLIC, which examines visionary Josh Harris, who invented Internet video streaming. Timoner’s films stimulate us to look and listen anew.”
http://www.laughtears.com/mess%20ondi%20interview.html

Martina Randles
“The film explores the concept of broadcasting entire lives over the internet from taking a dump to having sex, every aspect of ones character is uncovered to the nth degree with bleak results… the film provides a moral tale for an ever developing modern society…”
http://martinarandles.blogspot.com/2009/09/dont-live-too-publicly.html

Get your heinies over to the NuArt!  We had an all-out incredible opening weekend and now you’ve got T minus five more days to see us blown up on the big screen, Los Angeles.
BUY TICKETS HERE

“Anyone who still maintains that documentary films are the domain of the dry and donnish has never seen the work of Ondi Timoner… Aggressively hip!”  Check out the latest LA Times rave about us:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-indiefocus27-2009sep27,0,5046431.story

“A suggestion for anyone considering DIY distribution for your project: make sure you have a spokesperson for your film who is as charismatic as filmmaker Ondi Timoner.”  Look at this article about Ondi’s recent talk at the International Documentary Association:
http://www.documentary.org/node/11693

Go! NuArt!   And San Francisco… you are up next.  Opens FRIDAY at the Roxie for your Northern Californians…   INFO HERE.

We had an amazing opening night in Los Angeles last night with packed houses, a lively Q+A and a rocking party at the Hotel Shangri-la, I’m going to dedicate a blog post to the evening shortly.  But for now, enjoy a small selection of the murmurings out there about us…

From the lead reviewer…
LA Weekly Review
GO  WE LIVE IN PUBLIC Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Ondi Timoner’s remarkable (and remarkably unsettling) documentary We Live in Public follows obsessive self-documenter Josh Harris on his decadelong odyssey from multimillionaire Internet pioneer and Manhattan art-world cause célèbre to bankrupt (financially and emotionally), mentally unhinged exile. In 1999, before reality TV boomed or the words MySpace, Facebook and YouTube had entered the lexicon, Harris signed on for privacy-free life by launching the underground art project “Quiet: We Live in Public,” in which 100 like-minded exhibitionists lived for 30 days in open cells under the constant scrutiny of video cameras and Orwellian interrogators. Timoner (DIG!) was there from the start, and she stuck around for Harris’ equally catastrophic second act, in which he and his then-girlfriend equipped their apartment with wall-to-wall surveillance cameras and proceeded to live their lives, for your viewing pleasure, at the Web site weliveinpublic.com. Harris’ gradual implosion is both repellent and mesmerizing, Timoner’s film unsparing in its scrutiny. You can’t take your eyes off it, which may, in the end, be what Harris always wanted. (Nuart) (Scott Foundas)

Premium Hollywood:    http://www.premiumhollywood.com/2009/09/25/hanging-with-the-new-flesh/

Check out the dialogue on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=144348746469

Now go grab your friends and bring your crew to the NuArt to see WE LIVE IN PUBLIC this week.  It’s a short run… don’t miss out or who’s gonna feel like the fool?  You are! (sorry, I’m a little slaphappy between the hangover and lack of sleep thanks to our party last night…)

BUY TICKETS HERE

NPR just did a great story on us for their national show, On The Media.   In case you missed it, here is a link to the interview.

We are opening theatrically in Los Angeles this weekend at the NuArt Theater, beginning Friday September 25th.  Please come out and support WE LIVE IN PUBLIC!
BUY TICKETS HERE

Find out more details about our LA theatrical run HERE.

Thanks!

Our little doc that could – which won Sundance ‘09 and has racked up many an accolade along its blazing DIY trail -  is kicking off its LA theatrical run at the NuArt Theater this weekend!  It will be there for one week only!

You, and I’m personally talkin’ to YOU there reading this right now, need to grab a buddy or two and come out for a mind-altering experience you wont soon forget.

To further convince you, check out this story about the film that ran this weekend on NPR’s “On the Media”

Check out our trailer and WLIP widget on the home page of our site, weliveinpublicthemovie.com

Some pertinent info for the LA run:

NuArt Theater

11272 Santa Monica Blvd     Los Angeles, CA 90025-3154       (310) 281-8223
Our opening night is Friday September 25th, and showtimes for Friday, Saturday and Sunday are at:
12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00
The film will continue to run at the NuArt past opening weekend — please check schedule for showtimes.
BUY TICKETS HERE

We are running a little ticket giveaway *contest* for the 10pm shows this weekend.  Click HERE for details.

Ondi and Josh will be doing Q+As at the 7:30 shows all weekend.  If you can’t make it, we are WEBCASTING the Friday night Q+A, thanks to our friends at LiveStream.  Go to weliveinpublicthemovie.com at 9pm PST on Friday to stream the discussion and chat with other people and then hang around as the webcast continues on to our opening night afterparty!

Please help us spread the word by posting our widget on your site, facebook page, Twitter account, blog or wherever you spend time online!  Click SHARE on the widget to see a bunch of ways to spread us around the web world.

Thanks and see you at the NuArt!

Announcing our Los Angeles TICKET GIVEAWAY!  To celebrate the long-anticipated opening of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC in our beautiful hometown, we are going to give away 200 tickets to the late shows during opening weekend of our theatrical release in Los Angeles at the NuArt Theater .

You can choose to go to the 10pm shows on either Friday September 25th, Saturday the 26th, or Sunday the 27th.

All you have to do is be one of the first 200 people to email us  at wlip-la-tix@interloperfilms.com and specify which show you’d like to attend!

Remember to choose one option: 10 PM on Friday Sept 25th, 10pm on Saturday Sept 26th, 10pm on Sunday Sept 27th.

If you win, we’ll send you further details, but entry will be on a space-available basis, so make sure to get to the theater early enough to ensure that you get your ticket before it sells out.

We are really excited for opening weekend — it promises to be a huge affair with Ondi and Josh on-hand for Q+As at the 7:30 shows all weekend.

Nuart Theater  — BUY TICKETS HERE 11272 Santa Monica Blvd  Los Angeles, CA 90025-3154  (310) 281-8223

We’ve had SO MUCH great press for the film — we have a blowaway 90% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes right now!  Check out one recent interview with MovieLine.  Find lots more press, photos, screening schedule and, of course, the WLIP trailer on our website, weliveinpublicthemovie.com.

Please support our film and add our film WIDGET to your website, blog, facebook page or wherever you spend time online — just click on SHARE.  Use it to keep up with showtimes, news, secret deleted scenes and help us spread the WE LIVE IN PUBLIC word!

Rock!!