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December 25, 2006

In Search of the Valley

Michael Arrington

18 comments »

In Search of the Valley is a documentary about Silicon Valley that was released last month, and I highly recommend anyone interested in valley culture get a copy. It tracks three Brits (Steve O’Hear, Fleeta Siegel and Selwyn George) on their visit to Silicon Valley in September 2004, where they visited historical startup sites and interviewed a ton of people (Steve Wozniak, John Warnock, Guy Kawasaki, Craig Newmark, Jef Raskin, Tim O’Reilly, Dan Kottke and many others) about how and why the unique mix of culture, weather and Stanford University came together to create something so special. The fact that these guys are all outsiders gives the documentary a unique perspective. If you liked Triumph of the Nerds, this is for you.

Frankly, I think Marc Canter stole the show, and he certainly doesn’t pull any punches. See the trailer below, and get the DVD here. It’s $18.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, December 25th, 2006 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Web 2.0 News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. MyAppleStuff » The MacReviewCast Episode 97

    March 3rd, 2007 at 12:29 pm

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  1. The Web Conferencing Blog

    December 25th, 2006 at 11:02 pm

    Another good movie about Silicon Valley, specifically about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs starting their once small businesses, is “Pirates of Silicon Valley.”

    http://davidchao.typepad.com

  2. Tarun Chandel

    December 26th, 2006 at 12:49 am

    This sounds really interesting!

  3. Damien Mulley

    December 26th, 2006 at 2:20 am

    Delivery is a bit pricey for a single DVD. Also on registering on the site it will only allow numbers and letters in passwords. Not great to be honest. Would prefer a little more security when handing over my cc details. Still, I ordered. :)

  4. StuFF mc

    December 26th, 2006 at 3:25 am

    We did a very interessant Interview of Steve O’Hear, the director of this documentary. Check it out at http://www.pomcast.com (English), if you’re still not convinced that you need to buy this DVD ! :)

  5. Remo Uherek

    December 26th, 2006 at 3:48 am

    Shipping is really pricy ($11.40 to Switzerland). So I hope its worth the 30 bucks ;-).

  6. steve

    December 26th, 2006 at 4:03 am

    Thanks for the mention Mike!

    Shipping outside the US is a little pricey (we have to pay the same for our own promo copies to be sent to the UK), but that’s why we priced the DVD at $18, so that it’s fairly competitive price-wise in the UK at least.

    For more about the content of the film, and how we went about making it… check out my interview with Read/WriteWeb.

  7. Asif Alibhai

    December 26th, 2006 at 6:16 am

    I’ve just ordered a copy myself, seems pretty interesting from the clips I’ve seen so far, so let’s hope the DVD is even better!

    It’s on digg too btw, check it out:http://digg.com/tech_news/Silicon_Valley_Dreams_Dreamers

    [apologies if the post seems a bit spam-like, guys].

  8. steve

    December 26th, 2006 at 6:22 am

    Here is the Digg link.

  9. Harshal Vaidya

    December 26th, 2006 at 7:59 am

    If anybody knows of a free ripoff of this somewhere, I’d be interested. :))

  10. Fashion Industry Ceo

    December 26th, 2006 at 11:27 am

    mr arrington….please send me a complimentary copy!….:)

  11. canadiannerd

    December 26th, 2006 at 1:40 pm

    I bought this DVD and watched it. Yes it was a little pricey. As far as the documentary was concerned here are my thoughts.

    It was more about Steve Jobs than about the valley. I found that a little annoying. But what do you expect when you interview Raskin, Woz and Kawasaki?

    I liked the interviews with John Warnock. But that went into Apple-land again.

    There should’ve been more on HP and Intel I think to truly bring out the Silicon in the Valley.

    At CDN 40 it was not worth the price I paid. The Triumph of the Nerds is a more balanced and comprehensive documentary.

  12. steve

    December 26th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    For more comprehensive reviews, check out…

    In Search of the Valley: viewer feedback
    TidBITS: Silicon Valley Through the Lens of London
    Kirkville: DVD review
    The Internet is People: Review of In Search of the Valley
    Britflicks: In Search of the Valley review

  13. Web 2.0 Innovations

    December 26th, 2006 at 6:44 pm

    Big fan of the valley myself, here is an interesting essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

  14. canadiannerd

    December 26th, 2006 at 6:56 pm

    On a related note, anybody interested in a more personal history of Apple should check out Revolution in the Valley by Andy Hertzfeld or http://www.folklore.org/index.py.

  15. Patricia

    December 26th, 2006 at 8:24 pm

    Aw, that’s cool - it’s cool that people are noticing the sexy side of the business up near you all in the SV. Guy cracks me up. hehe.

  16. steve

    December 27th, 2006 at 8:09 am

    Thanks to all the TechCrunch readers who have ordered the DVD (there are quite few of you), we really appreciate your support. If anybody tried to order late yesterday, it seems Customflix.com was down for a few hours but it is back up now (great timing eh?).

    I agree with ‘Canadiannerd’, Andy Hertzfeld’s book is fantastic for all Mac history fans. (An extended interview with Andy is also on the DVD extras)

    - Steve (Director, In Search of the Valley)

  17. Jay Adair

    December 27th, 2006 at 3:26 pm

    Looks entertaining. I’ve bought a copy on impulse. Shame they had no British retailer.

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