| Time Bomb Y2K | |
|---|---|
 Official poster | |
| Directed by |
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| Produced by | Brian Becker |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Nathan Micay |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | HBO |
Release dates |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Time Bomb Y2K is a 2023 American documentary film, directed by Marley McDonald and Brian Becker. An all-archival film, it explores the Year 2000 problem, and the mass hysteria surrounding it.
It had its world premiere at True/False Film Festival on March 3, 2023, and was released on December 30, 2023, by HBO.
Premise
An all-archival film, Time Bomb Y2K explores the Year 2000 problem, and the ensuing mass hysteria to evade potential technological collapse or, at worst, a doomsday scenario.
Production
McDonald and Becker became friends while previously working together on Spaceship Earth. After opting to collaborate, they settled on co-directing a film revolving around the Year 2000 problem.[1] They decided together that the project would be compromised entirely of archival material.[2] To gather documentation of the period surrounding the dawn of the new millennium, Becker and McDonald openly solicited contributions of homemade footage, visited subjects' homes looking for videotapes they might have saved, and secured footage from the Center for Home Movies. In total, they viewed over 750 hours of footage for the film.[3][4]
In June 2022, the film was officially announced with McDonald and Becker as co-directors, Penny Lane as executive producer, and HBO Documentary Films producing with HBO distributing.[5]
Release
The film had its world premiere at True/False Film Festival on March 3, 2023.[6] It also screened at Hot Docs International Film Festival on April 29, 2023,[7][8] DC/DOX Festival in June 2023,[9] Camden International Film Festival on September 17, 2023,[10][11] the Virginia Film Festival on October 28, 2023,[12] and DOC NYC on November 15, 2023.[13][14]
The film was publicly released on December 30, 2023 on HBO.[15]
Reception
Critics highlighted the film's remarkable use of archival materials and its nostalgic yet prescient view of technological, cultural, and political crisis. For Chris Vognar of Rolling Stone, "Time Bomb Y2K works mostly because it keeps a straight face, acknowledging that, even if a lot of the hysteria seems silly now, the anxiety was quite real back then," comparatively "a more innocent time, before the flowering of surveillance capitalism and the days of other countries using the internet to interfere in American elections."[16] With regards to the film's contemporary relevance, CNN's Brian Lowry noted that "Time Bomb Y2k still speaks to the excesses of that earlier period in a way that connects directly to the present, providing a taste of how media frenzies happen filtered through the 20th century's final freakout."[17]
References
- ^ Saito, Stephen (December 28, 2023). "Brian Becker and Marley McDonald on the Living at the Edge of a Digital Divide "Time Bomb Y2K"". The Moveable Fest. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Rezayazdi, Soheil (December 15, 2023). ""Let's Make It Feel Like You're Watching TV During Y2K": Directors Brian Becker and Marley McDonald on Time Bomb Y2K". Filmmaker. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Encinias, Joshua (June 23, 2023). "'Nothing Could Be Worse Than the Current World': New Y2K Doc Looks at 1999 Excitement for the Apocalypse". MovieMaker. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Thomas, Rob (April 20, 2023). "'Time Bomb Y2K' remembers the day an apocalypse was averted". The Capital Times. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Oganesyan, Natalie (June 9, 2022). "HBO to Produce Documentary Feature on Y2K Scare (Exclusive)". The Wrap. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Owen, James (March 2, 2023). "Not the end of the world: True/False flick documents what we thought about Y2K". The Columbia Tribune. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ "Time Bomb Y2K". Hot Docs International Film Festival. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ "Hot Docs 30th-Anniversary Festival to Feature World Premieres of Highly Anticipated Canadian and International Docs as Part of Special Presentations Program". Bell Media. March 22, 2023. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ "Time Bomb Y2K". DC/DOX. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Morfoot, Addie (August 22, 2023). "Camden Film Festival, a Key Stop on the Awards Circuit for Doc Contenders, Reveals 2023 Lineup (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ "Time Bomb Y2K". Camden International Film Festival. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ "Time Bomb Y2K". Virginia Film Festival. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
- ^ "Time Bomb Y2K". DOC NYC. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Bergeson, Samantha (October 12, 2023). "DOC NYC Opens with Real-Life 'Truman Show'-Esque 'The Contestant': See Full Lineup". IndieWire. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Mouran, Cecily (December 12, 2023). "Exclusive: HBO's 'Time Bomb Y2K' trailer captures the height of tech hysteria". Mashable. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Vognar, Chris (December 30, 2023). "Y2K Mania: When People Thought the World Was Going to End". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Lowry, Brian (December 30, 2023). "'Time Bomb Y2K' ignites the media hysteria around the 20th century's final freakout". CNN. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
