We Live In Public – U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize

(I almost worked at Pseudo.com)

Internet pioneer Josh Harris has spent his life implementing his unique vision of the future, where technology and media dictate human social interaction and define our personal identity. At the turn of the millenium, Harris launched an art experiment called Quiet: We Live in Public. He created an artificial society in an underground bunker in the heart of New York City. More than 100 artists moved in and lived in pods under 24-hour surveillance in what was essentially a human terrarium. They defecated, had sex, shared a transparent communal shower””all on camera. On January 1, 2000, after 30 days, the project was busted by FEMA as a “millennial cult.” Undeterred, Harris struck again, this time as his own subject. Rigging his loft with 32 motion-controlled cameras, he convinced his girlfriend to allow him to record streaming video of every moment of their lives from the toilet to the bedroom. The project backfired, his relationship imploded, and Harris went broke. Mentally unhinged, he fled to an apple farm in upstate New York. Sundance award winner Ondi Timoner (#_5_ won the Grand Jury Prize in 2004) chronicled Harris for a decade, culling through thousands of hours of Harris’s own footage and coupling it with rousing vérité of her own. The result is a fascinating, sexy, yet cautionary, tale where we all become Big Brother.

With the explosion of competitive categories at Sundance in recent years, it’s hard to know which award is actually the most significant anymore, or better still, which film will go on to be commercially successful regardless of whether it won an award or not. Just my 2 cents. Full list of 2009 award winners after the jump.

2009 Sundance Award Winners

Alfred P. Sloan Award
Adam

Special Jury Prize
Tibet in Song

World Cinema Documentary
John Maringouin — Big River Man

World Cinema: Documentary — Editing
Burma VJ

World Cinema: Documentary — Best Director
Havana Marking — Afghan Star

World Cinema Documentary: Grand Jury Prize
Rough Aunties

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize For Acting
Catalina Saavedra — The Maid (La Nana)

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize For Originality
Louise-Michel

World Cinema Dramatic Competition: Best Cinematography
John de Borman — An Education

World Cinema: Screenwriting Award
Guy Hibbert — Five Minutes of Heaven

World Cinema Dramatic Competition Best Director
Oliver Hirschbiegel — Five Minutes of Heaven

World Cinema Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize
The Maid (La Nana)

World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary
Afghan Star

World Cinema Audience Award for Drama
An Education

U.S. Documentary Audience Award
The Cove

U.S. Dramatic Audience Award
Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire

U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize
Good Hair

U.S. Special Jury Prize Independent Cinema
Humpday

U.S. Special Jury Prize in Dramatic Competition for Acting
Mo’Nique — Push

U.S. Documentary Award — Best Cinematography
Bob Richman — The September Issue

U.S. Documentary Dramatic Award — Best Cinematography
Adriano Goldman — Sin Nombre

U.S. Documentary Award — Best Editing
Karen Schmeer — Sergio

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
Paper Heart

U.S. Documentary Award — Best Director
Natalia Almada — El General

U.S. Dramatic Award — Best Director
Caru Fukunaga — Sin Nombre

U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize
We Live in Public

U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize
Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire

-via Cinematical