A nostalgic look at Y2K hysteria from the safety of the future.

Constructed only from existing footage, we track the media’s growing interest in the mid 90s of the doomsday potential of the year 2000 ‘bug’. From concerned programmers (who were largely ignored) to pundits and government representatives who were variously lauded and ridiculed, we can see it was a challenging time. You can see the beats of our current crises, with conspiracy theorists, survivalists, and ordinary people scared about something they don’t understand – sound familiar?

There are laughs – Steve Jobs pre-turtleneck, evangelists talking about Satan in the electricity cables and children becoming obsessed with their computers. It’s serves as a nostalgic view of the nascence of our current digital age and I remember that moment. I was one of the ones who just trusted that capitalism would sort it out.

As a documentary, it’s perhaps understandably US-centric and the constraints of using found media stops it going further. I would have loved to see if the survivalists were disappointed when doomsday didn’t come and some sort of reflection from the future. It seems to be an example of disparate groups coming together across the political and consumer divide. Where has that sense now gone? Perhaps the footage of the forthcoming presidential election with George W. Bush as a candidate says it all.

Directors: Brian Becker, Marley McDonald
Origin: USA (2022)
Language: English
Genre: Documentary

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