Heroes of our time — 9 films about IT-business

"Halt and Catch Fire"

Think startups and crowdfunding movement has finally found its place in modern culture: one of the last episodes of the cult satirical show "South Park" was on the platform Kickstarter and the myth of lounging online entrepreneurs. As in the film revealed the history of businessmen, adventurers of the new formation, and chose the most interesting films about the era of computer technologies — from the biopic about Steve Jobs and mark Zuckerberg and documentaries about the collapse of the dotcom to the increasingly popular HBO sitcom.

"Pirates of the Silicon Valley"


The beginning of 70-ies: future Apple founders Steve jobs and Steve Wozniak are involved in anti-government demonstrations that have swept across the University of California-Berkeley, while the founders of Microsoft bill gates and Steve Ballmer regularly attend Harvard lectures on the other end of the country. General narrative on the origin of the personal computer, woven from personal stories to future business icons: the film tells in detail about the hardships of entrepreneurs, cut-throat competition, success and corporate unscrupulousness accompanying the creation of the main tool of the XXI century. The film is based on the book "Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer".

"E-dreams" and "Startup.com"

These documentary films dedicated to one of the most dramatic periods in the history of Internet capitalism. In 1990-e years many believed that the inflated "bubble" is the personification of a new economic paradigm, as the Internet company making money out of thin air, is a promising business model. Investors were happy to invest the money in a risky venture, ignoring the standard parameters of the financial stability of companies, which led to the collapse of the market in March 2001. Both films are thoroughly studying the brief history of the UPS and downs of the dot-com and so on: "Dreams" tell about the company Kozmo.com Internet startup faster delivery; and "Startup.com" says on the site GovWorks.com the prototype of the modern portals that appeared in 1999.

"Download. The True Story of the Internet"



In this four-part documentary series, filmed by Discovery channel, the creators are trying to understand the history of our society in the last two decades. The development of the Internet and digital technology has influenced us? As he developed the Internet? What led competitive war online media companies and information arms race? Browsers, search engines, online stores, and finally, social networks — each episode is dedicated to becoming one of these aspects of our daily life.

"Ctrl+Alt+Compete"

Probably the most inspiring film in the collection. Filmed on Microsoft's money documentary is an inside look at the modern American business environment, a kind of "instruction manual" whose main message can be formulated as "believe in yourself, and maybe you get to change the world." In the company of five ambitious entrepreneurs trying to start their projects, the viewer travels through the main startup areas of America: technical conference DEMO forum but the GDC and the nerd Mecca, SXSW.

"Something Ventured"

The film is dedicated to the history of venture capital in America in the second half of the twentieth century. We all know ambitious leaders, visionaries and odious characters, standing at the head of successful companies. But who helped them to succeed? Who originally saw an opportunity where others saw nothing but a poorly prepared business plans? Guided these people with passion, by greed or a sincere desire to change the world? The film is a collective portrait of business angels bygone era, including the founders of Apple, Atari, Intel, Genentech, Google, Cisco and many other innovative companies.

"The Social Network"





In his film-a Saga about the history of Facebook, David Fincher successfully bypasses many of the cinematic and social stereotypes and creates a convincing portrait of a narcissistic and arrogant jerk, who manages to become the youngest billionaire in history. Thanks to meticulous work with the facts, including legal documents, and skill of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin ("the West Wing", "War Charlie Wilson"), the story of Mark Zuckerberg overcomes limits of the standard "Hollywood biopic" and becomes a chronicle of the establishment of the era of social networking.

"Silicon Valley" and "Halt and Catch Fire"





"Silicon Valley"

Television networks, which are the main suppliers of film entertainment is also not left without attention the topic of startups and programming. The first episode of the HBO sitcom — was created with the participation of Mike judge ("king of the hill", "Beavis and Butthead"). It tells about the misadventures of six young programmers, startups, competing with easily recognizable Internet giant Hooli. The TV series "Halt and Catch Fire", released on the TV channel AMC, followed by "Pirates of Silicon Valley" develops the history of the computer revolution of the 80s. His characters are employees of a fictional company Cardiff Electric — compete for computer market with the IBM Personal Computer giant.

Source: theoryandpractice.ru