Bosco Bosco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Um when where? Now? Now? This sounds freakin amazing. > >Bosco
I'm not certain the film has distribution as yet. It only recently screened at Sundance. Brent >--- brent wodehouse <[ mailto:brent_wodehouse%40thefence.us >[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> >[ http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2008/01/sleep_dealer >]http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2008/01/sleep_dealer >> >> 'Sleep Dealer' Injects Sci-Fi Into Immigration Debate >> >> By Jason Silverman >> >> 01.24.08 >> >> >> PARK CITY, Utah - Tech will not set you free. At least that's the >> message >> of Sleep Dealer director Alex Rivera's impressive, eye-opening >> debut. Set >> in a futuristic world of have-nots, where 21st-century gadgetry >> sucks >> resources from the world's poor and channels them to its wealthy, >> the film >> premiered to enthusiastic response Friday at the Sundance Film >> Festival. >> >> In Rivera's film, Mexican villagers are forced to buy water for >> their >> crops from an armed, English-speaking robot. Most of the village's >> healthy >> men have bolted for Tijuana to look for work in cyberfactories. And >> the >> multinational imprint is seen almost everywhere. >> >> It's a timely message, deftly delivered by a self-described >> "digital media >> worker" and immigrant's son who has become a fixture on the >> experimental >> video scene. >> >> "We are being sold a false bill of goods, that the more connected >> we >> become the more equal we will be," Rivera said during an interview >> from >> Sundance's headquarters in Park City. "Statistically speaking, >> that's not >> what's happening. The more connected we become, the more we are >> divided." >> >> Sleep Dealer is remarkably topical for a film set in the future >> (albeit >> one described by Rivera as taking place "five minutes from now"). >> Central >> themes include outsourcing, corporate ownership of water, remote >> warfare, >> confessional internet diaries and military contractors who are >> accountable >> to no one. It's the rare political film without any reference to >> contemporary politics; like Blade Runner and other big-brained >> sci-fi >> flicks, it's about ideas, not selling merchandise. >> >> "I love gnomes and goblins and elves," said Rivera, who's made a >> name for >> himself touring museums and festivals with his award-winning >> shorts. "But >> what I'm really interested in is speculative fiction. I wanted to >> use this >> film to ask the question, 'Where are we going?'" >> >> Sleep Dealer tells the story of a young campensino named Memo whose >> DIY >> radio draws unwanted attention from a U.S. military contractor. >> Fleeing to >> Tijuana, Memo has implants placed in his body in order to become a >> "node >> worker" - a Mexican laborer who, from south of the border, taps >> into a >> vast network that operates robots located in the United States. >> >> Memo's robot welds girders on a skyscraper. Other node workers >> perform >> housework, watch the kids and keep the yard neat. The film's title >> refers >> to the node workers' exhaustion as they work 12-hour shifts to >> build, >> clean and maintain cities they'll never visit. >> >> In Tijuana, Memo becomes entwined with a Latino military >> contractor, who >> operates drones around the world from his base in San Diego, and an >> aspiring journalist who sells her memories - the blogs of the >> future - >> online. >> >> Rivera said the inspiration for the film came from a Wired magazine >> article about the emerging "global village." It was published >> around the >> same time that the U.S. government began building walls along the >> country's border with Mexico. >> >> That ironic juxtaposition started Rivera thinking: What if >> technology >> could extract the life force from the Mexican population and send >> it north? >> >> "The problem is that the worker comes with a body," Rivera said. >> "That >> body needs health care, and gives birth to children that need to go >> to >> school. So keep the body outside of the United States. Suck its >> energy and >> leave the cadaver or the problematic shell out of the picture." >> >> He began writing Sleep Dealer in the late 1990s, collaborating on >> the >> script with former Sundance award-winner David Riker. As the years >> passed, >> real life began making gains on Rivera's dystopian vision. >> >> "Films like Star Wars use terms like empire and rebellion, but they >> are >> bandied about in bland ways - powerful words used to describe >> nothing," >> Rivera said. "One of the original propositions of my film is that >> we >> (create that sense) of a world divided between wealth and power." >> >> Despite being shot on what Hollywood producers would consider an >> impossibly miniscule budget (the Los Angeles Times pegged the >> film's price >> tag at a mere $2 million), Sleep Dealer looks like a real sci-fi >> movie. It >> includes 450 effects shots, and was filmed on evocative locations >> throughout Mexico. >> >> Its weighty subject matter is leavened by Rivera's trickster-like >> sense of >> humor. At a party, elders in village garb dance to "old-fashioned" >> techno >> music. A booth at a seedy bar advertises "Live Node Girls." And >> back-alley >> node jobs are provided by "coyoteks," a pun on the coyotes who >> smuggle >> today's undocumented workers into the United States. >> >> Sleep Dealer serves up a radical vision of a troubling tomorrow, >> injecting >> viewers into a high-tech, developing-world future. >> >> "Science fiction always tells outsider stories, with people coming >> into >> conflict with the system," Rivera said. "But I wanted to create a >> science-fiction point of view that we've never seen before. We >> never see >> films about the future of Mumbai or Mexico City. Just yanking the >> point of >> view out of London, or New York, or Los Angeles and dropping it >> somewhere >> else is a powerful gesture." >> >> > >I got friends who are in prison and Friends who are dead. >I'm gonna tell ya something that I've often said. > >You know these things that happen, >That's just the way it's supposed to be. >And I can't help but wonder, >Don't ya know it coulda been me. > > > >
