24 hours on craigslist

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Documentary filmmaker and Truly CA associate producer, Elizabeth Pepin interviews Michael Ferris Gibson, producer/director of 24 hours on craigslist. (Running Time: 28:22)

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In 1967, the U.S. Department of Defense, in order to ensure communication in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack, started construction of the ARPAnet, an experimental computer network system which would soon evolve into what we know today as the Internet.

That same year, in San Francisco, it was the Summer of Love.

In 1995 craigslist.org was born: a free, down-to-earth and uncensored bulletin board that revolutionized the ease and speed with which people could communicate, exchange goods and services, and create community. Primarily focusing on housing, jobs, items for sale and personal ads, the site soon became a hub for San Francisco's wired community.

By 2003, craigslist is big. Really big. Over 1/3 of all Bay Area internet users utilize craigslist on a regular basis. Outside of the Bay Area, craigslist has spread to 31 cities across the globe, with no sign of slowing. In San Francisco alone, the site receives over 23,000 posts daily, with page views close to 29 million daily. With no advertising, no commercialization and only word-of-mouth promotion, craigslist has become a phenomenon.

Inspired by an evening's perusal of all the categories on craigslist, filmmaker Michael Ferris Gibson came up with a unique idea for a film -- document an entire 24 hours of the popular website. From a single post on craigslist he assembled eight film crews to film a random day-in-the-life of what has evolved into the world's largest community board. Not just the "Best-Of" or the "Success Stories," but a real, down-to-earth look at the fastest-growing grassroots cyber-community in the city that started it: San Francisco. 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.

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