Movie review: "We Live in Public" follows a dot-com Mad Hatter

Did you know that one of the Internet's founding geniuses was quite possibly insane? If not, you haven't heard of Josh Harris. A New York City dot-com megamillionaire, Harris foresaw the potential of the web, pioneering social media and streaming video when most people didn't know how to hook up a modem.

He was so prescient and bold in his vision of a totally virtual lifestyle that no one questioned his eccentricities. Like coming to meetings as his alter ego Luvvie, a falsetto-voiced, greasepaint-smeared clown. Or his decision to build Quiet, a hivelike residence/art project. Harris bought an abandoned building and stocked it with food, liquor, communal showers and a firing range full of loaded weapons. And everywhere, cameras.

In this documentary by Ondi Timoner ("Dig!"), which won the Sundance festival's Grand Jury Award, Harris comes off as half nerd, half Nero. The son of an alcoholic mother and an ever-traveling businessman, he was socialized by TV, specifically "Gilligan's Island," with freakish consequences to his mental health. He's a cautionary tale about children raised by technology, without adult love.

Ignorant of love, Harris sought fame. He created the first internet TV network, with interaction between on-air personalities and online chat members. Convinced that anyone would trade away privacy for camera time, Harris opened Quiet to 150 artists and would-be internet celebrities, sealing them in for a month. He upped the ante by making the participants undergo psychological torture sessions designed to provoke extreme behavior. The resulting episode of mass psychosis was a high tech Heaven's Gate thankfully shut down by the police before anyone was killed.

Then Harris decided to live his own life under constant web surveillance. He talked his girlfriend into sealing herself into a surveillance-equipped apartment, sharing their every tender moment, squabble and sex act with the world. To say the least, it strained the relationship.

"We Live in Public" is a whirlwind look at an eccentric personality in a turbulent time. It's a story of hubris punished, narrated by Harris' alienated brothers, his ex-lover and former business partners. Harris himself appears in historical footage and recent interviews where he presents himself with the confidence of the delusional. It also asks pointed questions about how far people will prostitute themselves for attention, how the virtual world forms and deforms our personal lives. We're all content providers now.

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186