Seed

For all its heightened drama and conflict, this documentary is best enjoyed by the tech savvy. Not that Luddites won't get wrapped up in the external and internal conflicts building up to the climax in which they find out who wins the "hackathon," it's just that Seed resorts to all the tricks in the reality show playbook to make the spectacle of people basically working in front of a computer screen all day and all night visually compelling. Even with the interesting-enough stories and backgrounds of the three teams, the spinny cameras and delay-pedal saturated background music gives one the sense that "reality" is being manipulated to seem more dramatic than it is "irl."

Also, there isn't much context provided at the beginning. The viewer is simply supposed to understand that this is all very important and meaningful to those being filmed. While the story does eventually take shape and what's at stake for the participants is made clear, it takes a while to get there. Even the faintest whiff of conflict is played up to squeeze out as much entertainment value as possible. It's almost as if the filmmakers didn't have enough faith in the diverse and unique stories of their subjects, and it's that apparent lack of faith that prevents this documentary from appealing to a more universal audience.