We Live in Public

This is a remarkable film about a strange and prophetic man. What does it tell us? Did living a virtual life destroy him?

Would be fascinating by virtue of its subject alone. But the filmmaker wisely emphasizes how Harris also represents something bigger; this isn’t just the story of one man but also the dawning of the virtual über alles age and the death of privacy.

Harris saw this brave new world more than a decade ago - and liked what he saw. To watch We Live in Public is to wonder if the world we live in is just a reflection of one man's neurosis - if Harris's mix of emotional distance and rabid self-promotion has simply gone viral.

A frightening portrait of a man whose technological genius fails to compensate for his gaping emotional deficits.

We Live In Public doesn’t show that Harris was a genius so much as that he was a mentally and emotionally unstable egotist, trying to force a revolution in self-broadcasting and connectivity that later happened more naturally.

If anything, the film is a reflection of the Web zeitgeist, where observation comes easily but insight is rare. What saves the documentary from becoming a complete frustration is the sheer, stunning prescience of Harris.

It’s a fascinating look at a really weird guy who, whether you know it or not, made a profound impact on all of our lives (because who doesn’t spend hours a day on YouTube?).