Timoner’s documentary tells the story of Josh Williams, a wildly innovative geek who made a fortune from predicting the power of the internet back in the 1980s and sank his money into Quiet, an Orwellian surveillance project that turned a building in New York into a youth hostel from hell. Painfully hip exhibitionist “citizens” donned uniforms, lived in pods and were filmed 24 hours a day, doing everything. What started as a prophesy of the slave new world of the future degenerated over a month into gunfire, sex and recrimination. After Quiet was closed down by the authorities, Harris took a holiday, fell in love and instigated a new project — which is where the real trouble starts. Ondi Timoner (Dig!) has put together a thrilling and occasionally disturbing portrait of a dotcom pioneer who is dangerously obsessed with control.
15 (89min)