"Naughty and nasty"

a great little piece on film + IATSE update + "microwork"

arts

Film editor Sophie Corra on “how to break contemporary cinema out of its overly-cautious rut.”

In an age when reboots, sequels and Marvel rule, and their indie counterparts feel small and unchallenging, it seems many people have given up on contemporary movies, resorting to the safety of the Criterion Channel. As an editor and movie lover I find this very sad, though I am hopeful cinema is about to turn a corner… Tarantino frequently observes in interviews, the hyper-conservative films of the ’80s led directly to the experimental indies boom in the ’90s. Perhaps a new wave of cinema needs to be born from filmmakers willing to be naughty and nasty.

labor

Alex Press in Jacobin re: IATSE:

Many members saw their opportunity to seize the moment to set higher standards for a grueling industry, and they remained steadfast, even as their leadership ran a “vote yes” campaign. Going forward, it will take sustained work to solidify this transformation so that, in the next round of contract negotiations, members get what they want and need.

indie media

Josh Gabert-Doyon in The Baffler re: microwork:

Employers can request jobs and expect on-demand efficiency from workers even as there are no real ties between them, and the tasks are so fragmented that employers can justify paying pennies for this labor. Task-workers have very little in terms of bargaining rights or decision-making power; their jobs are presented as a benevolent favor on the part of unstoppable technological hegemons. Razzle dazzle indeed.

An NYC family doing piecework in 1912. Gabert-Doyon reflects on the piecework economy to help conceptualize tech giants’ growing reliance on nearly invisible, tasked-based “microwork.”