I went to see the movie “24 Hours on Craigslist” last night. It’s a talking heads style documentary with lots of short clips, some of which were rather entertaining.

How it worked

An ad was posted on Craigslist looking for people who were willing to film Craigslist ad posters and follow their adventures (or lack thereof). This is fitting since the very nature of Craigslist is to post free classified ads! Craigslist then added a small feature where users could check off a box that said something like “include me in the Craigslist movie” and these people were filmed, the best of which made it to the big screen (or smaller big screens since it played in smaller theatres in select cities).

Film clips

They took clips from various posters in various categories around Craigslist. As expected, there were a lot of kuh-ray-zee people who were loving their 15 minutes of fame and took the opportunity to provide a brief synopsis of their odd lifestyles.

Some of these included a nutbar complaining that too many thin women in their early 20s were contacting him when all he wanted was 270 pound hook up. Groups of all types were shown briefly. Flash mobs were filmed (I’ll probably blog about those in the future). Couples who met directly or indirectly on Craigslist dating personals or other ads discussed their story. Other stories included people offering their services (such as maasages from a male adult video star), some guy trying to sell his boat, people looking to rent their apartments (reason for vacancy: former roomate killed in car crash – ouch.), and so on.

I’m impressed that the movie opened in minor theatres across North America from Montreal to LA. It was filmed mainly in San Francisco where Craig’s list began.

Overall, it was worth checking out, especially since Craig and his list have helped me on so many occasions I can’t count’em all.