Erik Gandini’s four years working on After Work had him pondering on how everyone’s work lives are changing in contemporary society.
“It was 350 years ago and the work ethic had a purpose – it was time to build factories in the Industrial Revolution. It was the perfect idea for the time, also with the religious belief that we could earn a place in Paradise through the sweat on our foreheads,” he says. Gandini was fascinated about the “rules, fears and values that make us work as hard or sometimes harder regardless of how effective technology becomes today.”
After Work looks at many facets of work – an Amazon delivery driver in the US who finds a purpose in her job; state employees in Kuwait who sit in offices all day with lucrative jobs but bored as there are no tasks to do; or South Korean office workers who regularly clock in 14 hour days to the detriment of their family life. There is one rich couple in Italy comprised of a husband who loves working long hours and a wife who has no desire to work at all, so fills her days in other ways. He also meets Southern Europe’s growing population of Neets – young people not in employment, education or training. The film examines proposals such as universal basic income, while presenting different viewpoints and not trying to push the filmmaker’s personal agenda about one right way forward.
“My biggest insights were from the most dysfunctional examples. In Korea, the workers who have the lack of ability to even fantasize what they could be doing instead of being in the office. The government tries to give them ideas. They could go home and paint or spend time with their family.”
This resonated with him also through his work as a documentary professor at the Stockholm University of the Arts. “It’s a very free art school, where we tell young people, ‘you’re an artist now, here’s the money, go make something.’ And that freedom freaks people out…because as Noam Chomsky says in the film, the highest goal in life is having a job – and we prepare young people for that goal.”
“I like to do films which are more idea-driven than character-driven,” adds Gandini, whose past feature docs include Surplus – Terrorized into Being Consumers, The Swedish Theory of Love and Videocracy. “I love characters and I like to work with people, and I’m interested by them, but I like making films about ideas.”
He also wanted to not only explain the current situation, but adds how “the whole challenge for me was also to…make the film not necessarily about how things are, but about how things could be…I really liked the challenge to make a film that could make you reflect about things that might come soon.”
But with half the workforce potentially replaced by automation and artificial intelligence, what will the future hold?
Humanity might need more “tolerance in society to let people decide for themselves what they want to do with their time. Some might create an important vaccine, some might go surfing. And this could shift in different times in our lives.”
He started the film in 2019 and had to pause shooting during the pandemic, but feels like the launch in 2023 is perfect. “I’m so happy that we are releasing it now, because the timing is so interesting. I feel so much of the debate now is run by tech people. I’m not interested in technology myself.”
“Now we are really in the transition phase because some workers are about to become obsolete or at least incompatible…what if you don’t have a job and you don’t know your role in society? This could be collective frustration. And this type of frustration is part of what brought Trump into power, because of unemployment.”
After Work looks stunningly cinematic thanks in part to Gandini’s collaboration with cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel, who has also shot Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winning features The Square and Triangle of Sadness. “Fredrik was very interested in this topic. Besides the thematic interest, he’s an amazing cinematographer. It’s a luxury to be able to work with his skills and also Sofia Liander, the focus puller he works with closely. In documentary, things happen that are unpredicted, and we’re using this big film camera, but everything is super sharp. It’s very unusual for a documentary.”
Gandini is part of the Sweden-based production company Fasad (the company’s Jesper Kurlandsky produced After Work), and the writer/director/producer has nothing but praise for the appetite and support for documentaries in Scandinavia.
“We have strong support from the Swedish Film Institute, from Swedish television, from the Nordisk Film & TV Fond. There’s such a good system of Scandinavian co-production, this film was co-produced with Norway and Italy. This is a well-funded project for a documentary. I’ve been working within documentary for 30 years now and I wouldn’t have continued if I didn’t live in Sweden,” he says.
As for the work culture in Sweden, he thinks there is a good balance. “Sweden is a very effective society, people work hard but there is a better work-life balance than in many countries. We have long vacations – it’s unthinkable that you would send an email to someone in July,” he adds with a laugh.
The film world premiered March 19 at CPH:DOX Dox:Award competition, and is also referenced in the festival’s related discussion ‘Is the Work Worth it All?’ on March 24.
