24 Hours on Craigslist
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| 24 Hours on Craigslist | |
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 Cover of 24 Hours On Craigslist |
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| Release date(s) | 2005 |
| Country |  US |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
24 Hours on Craigslist is a feature-length documentary that captures the people and stories behind a single day’s posts on the community-focused, classified website Craigslist. The film, made with the approval of Craigslist’s founder Craig Newmark, is woven from interviews with the site’s users, all of whom ‘opted-in’ to be contacted by the production when they submitted their posts on August 4, 2003. The documentary screened in nine film festivals during 2004 and 2005, winning a 'best feature documentary', and played in a limited, self-distributed, theatrical release in 2005 and 2006. The film was released on DVD on April 25, 2006.
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[edit] Synopsis
(excerpted from Press Kit)
The independent documentary film 24 Hours on Craigslist focuses on the popular and rapidly growing web site www.craigslist.org. The film remains true as possible to the sensible, grassroots nature of ‘craigslist’ and its non-commercial approach to providing individuals with a voice into their community from their advertisements placed on the web site. Craigslist provides posting categories ranging from jobs and personals to activity partners and housing and has grown dramatically since its inception in 1995. The site now covers almost 200 different cities worldwide, receives 5 million postings, 1 million forum postings and over 2.5 billion page views from over 10 million active users each month, and these numbers are growing rapidly.
24 Hours on Craigslist is an honest exposé of a day in the life of the craigslist community in the city where it all started: San Francisco. Filmed entirely from user posts, the documentary provides a glimpse of the variety and breadth of the experiences of the website’s users. Eight film crews, also found through a single post on craigslist, were sent to film 121 different stories posted on August 4, 2003. The documentary’s rapid editing style highlights the individuals in the context of their postings, and allows the subjects’ comments to move the film along without the use of voice-over narration. An Ethel Merman drag queen searches for the perfect backup band for her Led Zeppelin covers. A suburban professional woman assembles a diabetic cat support group. A couple seeks the perfect rabbi for their marriage. A would-be mother finds her ideal sperm donor. Doors for sale, one-night stands, compulsive roommates, transsexual erotic services: the mundane and the sublime, the ridiculous and the profound, all come together to paint a portrait of a thriving, humanistic community in the midst of an ever-accelerating culture.”
[edit] Production
Michael Ferris Gibson, an independent filmmaker, was inspired one night in ealy 2003 to surf every category of Craigslist’s San Francisco site while procrastinating on his project. Three hours later he had the inspiration for ’24 Hours on Craigslist.’ After spending five more hours drafting a treatment, he contacted Craig Newmark about the idea. Two days later Michael met with Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO, and Craig Newmark to discuss the film concept: creating a documentary entirely ‘from’ Craigslist; crew, cast, and music would all be sourced from the site.
Craig literally picked the chosen day out of a hat from which to generate the user posts that were used in the film: Monday, August 4, 2003. The production filmed these individuals and followed their stories and interactions with other users over the next three months.
[edit] Film festivals
Several different versions of 24 Hours on Craigslist screened in nine different film festivals around the world. In addition, the film was selected to screen in Toronto, Canada, in April of 2005 by HotDocs for its monthly screening series ‘Doc Soup’.
2004
- South by Southwest
- International Documentary Film Festival – Amsterdam
2005
- San Francisco Independent Film Festival
- Against Gravity Film Festival (Poland)
- Newport Beach Film Festival
- Idaho Film Festival
- Vail Film Festival
- DeadCENTER Film Festival
- Toofy Film Festival (Winner Best Feature Documentary)
[edit] Awards
- Best Documentary Feature - Toofy Film Fest 2005
- Best Local Film - East Bay Express Readers' Choice Awards 2006
[edit] Commercial distribution
The Director and Producer of the film distributed ’24 Hours on Craigslist’ theatrically in the United States and Canada under the distribution label of Zealot Pictures. Heretic Films released the film on DVD on April 25, 2006.
[edit] References
- Press Kit for 24 Hours on Craigslist (http://www.24hoursoncraigslist.com/subs/presskit.pdf)
