Film Screening: Sleep Dealer

November 13th, 2011

 

Thursday,  November 17th
6:30pm,  Rm 5414

Utopian Studies Group Film Series

Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, 2008) is a provocative Cyberpunk dystopia, set in the border between Mexico and the US in the near future.
The wall between both countries is already finished, and a new business model based on cyborgs appears. The difference between the
braceros of the fifties and the future cybraceros, is that the latter do not cross the border, but are connected as workforce through a
computer network. This radical form of outsourcing exposes the potential of new technologies for social control and imperialist
expansion. The universe represented is composed with recognizable quotations from classics of the genre, such as Blade Runner or The
Matrix. For our post-screening discussion, I will show the short film “Why Cybraceros?” and then lead us in a reflection about the
potential for new expressions of colonial relationships with the expansion of network computing throughout the world, and about the re-
appropriation of technology as a tool for political resistance in the global south.

* The Utopian Studies Group is a Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC) Chartered Organization & as such receives funding/support from
the DSC. All of our events/initiatives are sponsored by the DSC.