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General Magic

Synopsis: 

The side of Silicon Valley you never see, General Magic, the multi-award winning documentary, is a tale of how a great vision, a grave betrayal and an epic failure changed the world.

Spun out from Apple in 1990 to create the ‘next big thing’, General Magic shipped the first handheld wireless personal communicator in 1994.

From the first smartphones to social media, e-commerce and even emoji, the ideas that now dominate the tech industry and our day-to-day lives were born at General Magic.

But this was before the Web, before 3G, before Google, before everyone had a mobile phone in their pocket. The world was not ready in 1994 to hold the world in its hands. And though General Magic died, those concepts and the people who pioneered them went on to change almost everything.

Combining rare archive footage with contemporary stories of the Magicians today, this documentary tracks the progress of anytime, anywhere communication from a thing of sci-fi fiction in 1994 to a reality in our pockets today. This is the story of one of history’s most talented teams and what happens when those who dream big fail, fail again, fail better and ultimately succeed.

Runtime: 
01:32:00
Information for the Audience: 

Directors: Sarah Kerruish, Matt Maude
Writers: Sarah Kerruish, Jonathan Key, Matt Maude
Producers: Sarah Kerruish, Matt Maude
Key cast: Tony Fadell, Megan Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Marc Porat, John Sculley

Categories:

Information for theatres: 

Student project: No
Completion date: 2018-04-13
Shooting format: Digital
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Film color: Color
First-time filmmaker: Yes

Total votes: 415

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