OndiTimoner Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Snag This: DiG!
Filed under: Documentary », Music & Musicals », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie », Trailers and Clips »
It can be frustrating to hear great buzz about a new film and then realize that you have to wait weeks, months, or even years, to see it yourself. Why not transform that frustration into satisfaction by watching the filmmaker's earlier work?
That was my thought as I checked SnagFilms to see what titles they're highlighting for free streaming this week. Ondi Timoner's lastest documentary, We Live in Public, generated good buzz at Sundance in January, prompting James Rocchi to write: "She's crafted a incisive, exciting and thought-provoking examination of the ways our new chances to live in public both make and mar the way we now live." (He also interviewed her along with her subject, Josh Harris.) I'll have to wait to see that one, but in the meantime, I decided to check out her earlier doc, DiG!
Filmed over a period of seven years, DiG! charts the relationship between musicians Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols. Timoner peaks in at live performances that sometimes stretched up to 10 hours (in front of 10 people), backstage antics, rehearsal sessions, and photo shoots. She interviews friends, family members, fellow musicians, journalists, and other insiders, providing insight into the music industry and perspective on a true story of supportive friends who became surprising rivals. It's the classic rock 'n' roll cautionary tale, writ large: drug abuse, artistic integrity, self-destructive behavior, constant fighting, wasted talent, and lost opportunities. Rambunctious and sobering, DiG! is completely absorbing.
We've embedded DiG! below for your viewing convenience (US only). Note: NSFW due to strong language. Timoner's Recycle, co-directed with Vasco Lucas Nunes, is also available to watch at SnagFilms.
Sundance Interview: Director Ondi Timoner and Josh Harris of 'We Live in Public'
Filed under: Documentary », Sundance », Podcasts », Tech Stuff », Interviews »
Getting ready to interview director Ondi Timoner and subject Josh Harris about the documentary We Live in Public (reviewed here) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, I sat with my recorder and got ready with my questions as Timoner offered me a T-shirt for the film. A nice gesture, and a casual one -- but the fact that Timoner, Harris and I were being filmed at the time by a camera capturing their Sundance experience for future use turned a gracious, friendly gesture into a curiously weighted proposition: What if I didn't take it? What if I didn't want it? And how long would my reaction endure?
Revolving around Harris' spectacularly failed internet art projects Quiet and We Live in Public, Timoner's film uses Harris as a case study in the perils of our over-broadcast age and offers an examination of the numbing, overwhelming possibilities the internet offers. Timoner and Harris spoke about the film, why the subject of the film refuses to watch it, information theory and the power behind pointing a camera, plus much more.
You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Sundance Review: We Live in Public
Filed under: Documentary », Sundance », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Sundance Reviews 2009 »
"The unexamined life is not worth living." -- Socrates
"Night City was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button." -- William Gibson, Neuromancer (1986)
We Live in Public, the newest documentary from director Ondi Timoner (Dig!, Join Us), looks at internet technology and how it's changing us, prying into these larger issues through looking at the life and times of Josh Harris, who the press notes call "The greatest internet pioneer you've never heard of ..." Harris made a fortune from the internet before you ever heard of it with his consulting and analysis firm Jupiter Communications, then launched a revolutionary web-based set of video programs called Pseudo and then descended into a series of ornate and risky multimedia art projects: First was Quiet, a constantly-broadcast bunker and residence in 1999 New York that offered participants comforts and privileges in exchange for certain rights and concessions. Then came We Live in Public, where Harris and his girlfriend Tanya Corrin lived in a loft with a 24/7 web broadcast of everything they did, said and were to each other.
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