USA,
2000, 96 min
Shown in 2001
CREDITS
- dir
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Jehane Noujaim, Chris Hegedus
- prod
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D.A. Pennebaker
- cam
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Jehane Noujaim
- editor
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Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim, Erez Laufer
- source
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Artisan Entertainment, 2700 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404. FAX: 310-255-3720
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COMMENTS
Jehane Noujaim, Chris Hegedus in person.
OTHER
Before the lay offs and downsizing, there was a moment when it seemed like anyone with a business plan and a dream could raise the capital to start an Internet company. Startup.com takes the viewer behind the scenes of the new economy, chronicling the birth of start up govWorks.com, a website to help people interact more easily with local government, and its growth from a company with an idea and eight employees to a financed and functioning business employing over two hundred people. Rather than aiming to create a primer on the boom-and-bust Internet phenomenon, filmmakers Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim wisely focus on the increasingly strained relationship between the young, ambitious friends who are the start-up’s main partners, self-satisfied business whiz Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and tech-guy Tom Herman. The interaction between the two partners as they try to ride the Internet wave gives the film both a natural dramatic arc and a human center. The filmmakers’ intimate access and dedicated filming schedule pay off; the film is full of revealing, unguarded moments and key turning points in the company’s growth, exposing the toll that inexperience, ambition and market pressures can take on both business and friendship.
—Rachel Rosen
FACTOID #14
The longest film at the Festival, Sátántangó directed by Béla Tarr, screened in 1995. This Hungarian black comedy clocked in at 435 minutes (just over seven hours).
