Steve Jobs' lost interview to screen in Atlanta

It’s been slightly more than a month since Steve Jobs died, and the valentines to the lauded wizard of technology are still being unearthed.

This “lost” 70-minute interview, which will be shown four times Wednesday and Thursday in 19 cities, including Atlanta’s Landmark Midtown, comes from a 1995 sit-down conducted by Robert Cringely, who created “Triumph of the Nerds,” a PBS miniseries about the dawn of the personal computer industry.

About 10 minutes of the interview was used in “Nerds” and the master tapes were lost during shipping, thought to be forever missing. But recently, a VHS copy of the full interview was discovered by series director Paul Sen in his garage.

The famously reclusive and private Jobs rarely provided lengthy interviews and Cringley, a former Jobs employee, nabbed Jobs 18 months before he sold NeXT, his niche computer company, to Apple, where he eventually returned to make electronic history.

Steve the serious: Looking Lennon-esque with his round specs and shaggy hair, Jobs is clad in his traditional black mock turtleneck for the interview, framed in a static camera shot from the chest upward. Cringely is never seen, only heard asking questions. Throughout the interview, Jobs frequently ponders his answers, scratching his face or furrowing his brow, never mincing words but also carefully articulating his responses.

Steve the prankster: Jobs describes his early friendship with collaborator Steve Wozniak, saying, “He was the first person who knew more about electronics than I did.” He recalls an instance where the two, using a blue box, called the Vatican posing as Henry Kissinger and asked to speak to the pope. “We learned we could build something ourselves that could control billions of dollars of infrastructure in the world,” Jobs says.

Steve the burgeoning billionaire: Jobs notes, without a hint of arrogance, that he was worth more than $1 million at age 23, more than $10 million at 24 and more than $100 million at 25, but shrugs at the accomplishment. “It wasn’t that important. I never did it for the money.”

Steve the visionary: After making 200 Apple I’s, Jobs and Wozniak had high ambitions for the Apple II and combined their respective dreams for the project: Wozniak wanted to add color graphics and Jobs’ goal was to sell the first “packaged computer.” Jobs also assumes most people are as intelligent as he when he says, “I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer…it teaches you how to think.”

Steve the sensitive: Jobs had no reservations in his feelings for John Sculley, the Apple CEO who was ousted in 1993, but not before the two clashed brutally over the vision of Apple, causing Jobs to resign and create NeXT. Jobs describes his own departure from Apple as “very painful” and continues, “What can I say? I hired the wrong guy. [Sculley] destroyed everything I spent 10 years working for -- starting with me.”