Jehane Noujaim,
The Making of Startup.com

As an ailing economy reduces high-flying Internet companies around the country to bankruptcy, acclaimed documentary team Chris Hegedus, D A Pennebaker and newcomer Jehane Noujaim take a behind-the-scenes look at the volatile start-up phenomenon, chronicling the turbulent development of govWorks.com, an award-winning Internet site that facilitates interaction between local government, citizens and businesses.  Turning a familiar headline story into a high-pressure personal odyssey, Startup.com follows the trials of partners Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman, best friends since childhood, as they progress from being rookies with only a business plan to assuming the leadership of a nationally recognized Internet company struggling to survive an inhospitable economy. With millions of dollars of venture capital at stake, Isaza Tuzman and Herman wrestle with the growing pains of a new business in the fickle Internet community, tackling technical difficulties, chartering the unpredictable venture capitalist waters, and out-smarting copy-cat competition.  In the end, however, none of these challenges prepares Isaza Tuzman or Herman for their own conflict over the management of govWorks.com., a conflict that will not only endanger their company and their jobs, but will irrevocably alter their lifelong friendship.

Jehane Noujaim, President Noujaim Films Inc.  New York, NY

At 25, Jehane Noujaim left her producing job at MTV to create Noujaim Films.  Her first project was to produce and direct STARTUP.COM. Noujaim began as a photographer and filmmaker in Cairo, Egypt, where she grew up. She moved to Boston in 1990, where she attended Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in Visual Arts and Philosophy. In 1996, Noujaim was awarded the Gardiner fellowship (which paid for the camera used to film STARTUP.COM). She has since worked in both the Middle East and the U.S. as a filmmaker and photographer, directing several short documentaries, most recently Mokattam, an Arabic film about an Egyptian garbage collecting village. Back in the U.S., she worked as a producer, a director and a cinematographer.  Since teaming with Pennebaker Hegedus Films in 1999, she has worked on  Only The Strong Survive (an upcoming film from Miramax) and Down From the Mountain, produced by the Coen brothers. STARTUP.COM is her debut feature film.