An Artisan Entertainment release of a D.A. Pennebaker presentation of a Pennebaker Hegedus Films/Noujaim Films production. Produced by D.A. Pennebaker. Executive producers, Jehane Noujaim, Frazer Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus.
Directed by Jehane Noujaim, Chris Hegedus.
In "Startup.com," members of the documaking team behind acclaimed 1994 feature "The War Room" assemble a fascinating chronicle of the Icarus flight of the e-commerce revolution as mirrored in the meteoric rise and subsequent crash and burn of an online business founded by two former high-school buddies. Despite the generally narrow theatrical market for documentaries, Artisan has a head start in positioning this timely, topical film, which goes beyond its potentially dry diet of facts to incorporate the juicy human drama of Machiavellian manipulations, ambition, torn loyalties and crushing betrayal.
Having chosen to continue tracking their subjects right up to the last possible moment, producer D.A. Pennebaker and directing partner Chris Hegedus -- here working for the first time with newcomer Jehane Noujaim -- premiered the doc at Sundance in its original digital form, with time-consuming film transfer to be undertaken later, prior to theatrical release.
Central figures behind the ill-fated company under scrutiny are Tom Herman and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, friends since their teens, now in their late 20s. Basing their idea on every person's inalienable right to wade through bureaucratic procedures in their own time and from their own home, the duo established GovWorks.com, an Internet company designed to facilitate dealings between individuals and local government.
Unfolding over little more than a year starting in May 1999, the film follows the operation's rise from a one-room office with single-digit staff to a $50 million enterprise with over 200 employees, before being radically downsized and eventually lost to a multinational corporation, leaving the founders with nothing.
Whittling down 400 hours of footage into a running time of less than two hours, co-directors Hegedus and Noujaim, who also edited with Erez Laufer, trace a compelling, suspenseful dramatic arc with an unflagging pace. The intricate process by which a nationally recognized company profiled all over the media could disintegrate in such a short time is outlined with probably as much clarity as is possible.
But the struggling economy, flat revenues, bloated infrastructures and mushrooming competitors that caused the dot-com bubble to burst, along with the stock market crash that ended IPO fever, are of less interest here than the dizzying personal journey undertaken by the partners. They come across -- as Isaza Tuzman's neglected girlfriend observes -- like kids playing at being entrepreneurs.
Each step forward is punctuated by a round of high-fiving, hugs, mutual back-patting and pep-rally chants, while setbacks are followed by a deflating autopsy of anger, frustration and pop-psych management babble. The partners' contrasting personalities also heighten interest. Herman is a behind-the-scenes organizer, a trusting guy with a perhaps naive faith in human decency and a paramount belief in the importance of friendship. Isaza Tuzman is an aggressive hardass, focused above all on what's good for the business.
When two CEOs become a crowd and Isaza Tuzman shoves his friend out of the company, ordering him to be escorted from the building as negotiations get uglier, most of the audience will be rooting for the business to go under. A postscript reveals that Isaza Tuzman followed GovWorks' failure by starting an online service to help distressed dot-coms.
Camera (color, digital video), Noujaim; editors, Hegedus, Erez Laufer, Noujaim; sound (Dolby Digital), Hegedus; additional video, Hegedus, Nick Doob, Mona El Daief, D.A. Pennebaker, John Paul Pennebaker, Andrew Sachs, Rosadel Varela; associate producers, Rebecca Marshall, Ed Rogoff. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 21, 2001. Running time: 103 MIN.
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