The film was made by Egyptian-American film director Jehane Noujaim and American documentary filmmaker Chris Hegedus. Noujaim had been Kaleil Tuzman's Harvard classmate and began filming Tuzman as he quit his job at Goldman Sachs, to begin govWorks with his high school friend Tom Herman. Noujaim contacted Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker for help in financing the project. The film was distributed by Artisan Entertainment (which was later acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment).
The film was shot in digital video. The filmmakers shot for over two years, and were editing the more than 400 hours of video and film right up to theirSundance Film Festival premiere in early 2001. They re-edited the last few minutes of the film just prior to its May 2001 theatrical release.
Since the release of the film, Tom Herman and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman have worked together at Recognition Group and JumpTV.[1][2]
