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John Webster: The Happy Worker – Or How Work Was Sabotaged (FI 2022). |
The Happy Worker – miten työ sabotoitiin / The Happy Worker – Or How Work Was Sabotaged.
FI © 2022 Yellow Film & TV. P: Marko Talli.
D+SC: John Webster. Cin: Jarkko T. Laine, Sun Ryung Kim. Graphic design: Jussi Turunen. Second screenwriter and line producer: Eveliina Kantola. M: Olav R. Øyehaug. S: Yngve Leidulv Sætre. ED: Kimmo Taavila, John Webster.
A non-fiction film.
Feat: Bernardo Alves, Gemma Faires, David Graeber, Jim Harter, Tiejo Keppler, Eunawn (Hazel) Lee, Christina Maslach, Carlotta Servadio, André Spicer, Vanessa Törnblom.
82 min
Original in English.
Festival premiere: 24 March 2022 CPH DOX
Finnish premiere: 6 May 2022 – released by SF Studios – with Finnish / Swedish subtitles (n.c.).
Corona precaution: none.
Viewed at Finnkino Strand 3, Iso Kristiina, Lappeenranta, 13 May 2022
Official synopsis: " THE HAPPY WORKER takes us behind the shiny corporate facades to reveal the systemic problems that plague the workplace: from a culture of silence, fake change and incompetent managers, to how we educate our children. The film is laced with humour and irony, but without losing sight of the very real consequences the toxic workplace has for the health and happiness of the people who work there. "
" Guiding us on this journey are, among others, the late great anthropologist and activist David Graeber (Debt: The First 500 years, Bullshit Jobs) and the Berkeley-based pioneer of burnout research, psychologist Christina Maslach. " (official synopsis)
AA: Its sunny title notwithstanding, The Happy Worker is a critical documentary exposé about the deterioration of working life in contemporary society. John Webster's has created an upbeat film on a devastating subject. The film is substance-driven, briskly edited and packed with illuminating resumes. Webster states his case sharply but without exaggeration and populism.
Alienated labour has been discussed at least since the young Marx (Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844). In Finland for instance Juha Siltala has written an epic survey called Työelämän huonontumisen lyhyt historia : muutokset hyvinvointivaltion ajasta globaaliin hyperkilpailuun ([A Brief History of the Deterioration of Working Life : Changes from the Era of the Welfare State to Global Hyper Competition], 2004).
John Webster has been inspired especially by the case of Nokia: how an exceptional team spirit was destroyed by bad management, a subject also discussed in other high profile films such as Arto Koskinen's excellent Nokia Mobile (2018).
The subject is topical globally. We all know people whose capacity is ignored or diminished in their work. It is not even a question of fair pay. Belittling commitment and wasting talent can be soul-destroying.
Reportedly Sigmund Freud was once asked what a normal person should accomplish well, and his answer was: "to love and to work". Though apocryphal, it is a good maxim that also appears in Leo Tolstoy's correspondence. G. W. F. Hegel thought that work is the essential means for an individual to participate in society. We are discussing our very being.
Personally, I'm currently happy with the best teams I have ever worked with. I have increasingly realized that nothing is more important than a good team spirit. "A happy ship is an efficient ship", as Captain Kinross (Noël Coward) stated in In Which We Serve (1942). No matter how great the adversity (such as the current crisis in world cinema), with a good esprit de corps it can be a joy to meet.
John Webster, a distinguished veteran in documentary film, has been creating exceptional work recently. Eye to Eye (2020) was about families meeting murderers of their children. Donner – privat (2021) was based on the last, frank interview of the great Jörn Donner.
The human dimension is central also in Webster's new film, focusing on the
ordeals of committed workers who have experienced bad management and
burnout. It should be ideal viewing for workplaces who want to
discuss, improve and change.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR (IN FINNISH):