While Hollywood hasn’t taken too much interest over the years in what I’m sure we all agree is the thrilling and exciting world of information technology, there have been a few movies that have found drama and excitement in the world of IT. Whether based on true stories, or simply inspired by them, here are five technology industry movies that belong in your digital media collection.

1. Silicon Valley goes to the movies
While Hollywood hasn’t taken too much
interest over the years in what I’m sure we
all agree is the thrilling and exciting world
of information technology, there have
been a few movies that have found drama
and excitement in the world of IT.
Whether based on true stories, or simply
inspired by them, here are five technology
industry movies that belong in your digital
media collection.
By Jeff Jedras
Image courtesy of Idea go at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2. Pirates of Silicon Valley
Before the Pirates of the Caribbean, we
had Pirates of Silicon Valley.
No Johnny Depp, but in 1999 ER’s Noah
Wylie was nearly as popular. He played
Apple founder Steve Jobs, and the movie
dramatized the rivalry between Apple and
Microsoft to launch, and win, the PC
revolution.
Actors also play Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer,
Steve Wozniak and other tech luminaries.
Watch for lots of bad hair, bad behaviour,
and a few early tech stories you may not
have known.

3. We Live in Public
This 2009 Sundance Film Festival-winning
documentary explores the loss of privacy in
the Internet age by profiling Josh
Harris, who the film calls “the greatest
Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of.”
Harris became a dot-com millionaire in the
1990s and founded Pseudo.com, an
Internet television network.
Through a series of experiments, he
explores how the willing loss of privacy in
the future will impact our lives.

4. Startup.com
A documentary delving into the dot-com
phenomenon from the high of the bubble
to the low of the burst, Startup.com follows
e-commerce web site govWorks, along with
its founders Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom
Herman, from 1999 to 2000 as the bubble
came to an end.
It explores the personal conflicts, the
financing pressures, growing pains, and
other challenges faced by many startups.
The heady days of the dot-com bubble
seem so long ago, but its lessons will still
ring true for today’s entrepreneurs.

5. The Social Network
If you don’t know the others, you know this
one.
Based on Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental
Billionaires, The Social Network dramatizes
the founding of Facebook, tracing Mark
Zuckerberg’s rise from Harvard undergrad to
tech visionary, and the trail of lawsuits he left
in his wake.
With Aaron Sorkin writing the screenplay the
dialogue was whip-smart, but the real
Zuckerberg took issue with some alleged
inaccuracies and creative liberties.

6. Iron Man
Billionaire industrialist, major technology
developer, loves fast cars and cool
toys, has a bit of an attitude … wait, what
do you mean Iron Man isn’t a biopic of
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison?
Well, O.K., at least, not officially…