This polished European documentary explores the uneven distribution of work, from work-obsessed countries like the US to societies where the young are either happily (or unhappily) jobless or paid to do nothing. The film covers the shrinking employment landscape, discussing guaranteed income policies, automation and artificial intelligence. While it is astute and thoughtful, it is focused primarily on the Global North, and does not touch on the relationship between jobs and the environment. After all, our current carbon-based political economy of growth and mindless consumption is a threat to our species’ survival. While After Work hints at some of these issues it is just a starting point in what needs to be a more profound discussion.
Trying to make sense of a world in spiraling crisis, millennial Swedish film maker Greta Stocklassa goes to former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix in the hope of finding sense. Blix led the team which failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the film uses historical news footage to vividly recreate the moment when a massive international peace movement rallied to stop the US’s ‘coalition of the willing’. The consummate professional, Blix did what he could within his mandate, but his warnings went unheeded, and from Isis to the massive flows of refugees, so much can be traced back to the war that followed.
