24 Hours on Craigslist Screening

I think the coolest thing about having a partner working at Google is that occasionally there are things that members of the public can attend. Sometimes these are nerdly related things - like the Open Source talk given by Bram Molenaar (creator of VIM) last week - & sometimes they are more interesting to the general public.

Last night there was a public screening of the independent movie "24 Hours on Craigslist". I had never heard of Craigslist before coming to the US, but within days of arriving we had it suggested as the easiest way to get ourselves sorted for accommodation, transport, bookshelves, you name it. It's is effectively an on line classifieds site, created in 1995 - sorted by region & available to hundreds of cities worldwide.We bought our car off the site.... & I have to admit to an "ebayesque" kind of obsession with the site for a while there. Dangerous, oh, so dangerous.




The movie (or documentary) was a snapshot of activity that goes on on Craigslist.org during a 24 hours period of time (hence the snappy & informative title). The film makers contacted a group of people that advertised within a 24 hour period of time & then followed their stories to see where they would go. What resulted was an addictive look into the lives of some strangers - a redheaded family after a redheaded dog, a mum selling 6 of her 7 strollers, a frightening little man advertising for participants in a sex party. It all boils down to a very watchable, & often hilarious, look into the lives of others.

For those in the US, "24 Hours on Craigslist" is available for hire on Netflix