Silicon Cowboys — Trailer

source: siliconcowboysmovie.com, youtube.com

added: Tue, Aug 30th '16

If we learn anything from watching the first season of AMC's '80s tech drama "Halt and Catch Fire," it's that Texas was once the hub of the personal computer industry. In fact, the series had loosely borrowed many of its storylines from the real-life experiences of Rod Canion, a Houston-born computer scientist and businessman who, in 1982, co-founded the revolutionary portable computer company Compaq with two fellow ex-Texas Instruments employees, Jim Harris and Bill Murto.

In the new documentary "Silicon Cowboys," based on Canion's memoir, filmmaker Jason Cohen, whose credits include the Oscar-nominated documentary short "Facing Fear," explores the origins of the personal computing revolution by charting the meteoric rise of Texas upstart Compaq whose David-and-Goliath battle with tech giant IBM was the catalyst of the PC era.

After premiering to strong reviews at this year's SXSW Film Festival, "Silicon Cowboys" will open in theaters and be made available on VOD beginning September 16. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer, above.

synopsis:
Launched in 1981 by three friends in a Houston diner, Compaq Computer set out to build a portable PC to take on IBM, the world’s most powerful tech company. Many companies had tried cloning the industry leader’s code, only to be trounced by IBM and its high-priced lawyers. SILICON COWBOYS explores the remarkable David vs. Goliath story, and eventual demise, of Compaq, an unlikely upstart who altered the future of computing and helped shape the world as we know it today.

directed by Jason Cohen

release date September 16, 2016 (in theaters and on VOD)