Author archives: Joerg Markowitsch
The „Individual Responsibility“ Con
The beautiful, angry gig-economy comedy "Do not Expect Too Much from the End of the World" (2023, Radu Jude) doesn't have to look far for exploitative conditions in Bucharest, but finds them en-route in a production assistant's car.
Fisheries policy and the law of accidents at work
The series 'Blackport' (2021) virtuously works through a piece of Icelandic economic history surrounding the introduction of fishing quotas. Dramatic, amusing and at the same time educational, this microcosm reflects the ills of the wider world.
“Women in the Playpen”. Female Role Models and Swiss Vocational Education
A small but fine exhibition on Swiss author Iris von Roten at the Strauhof Literature Museum in Zurich, raises questions about inclusion and gender in Swiss vocational education - then and now.
(Un)responsible work — for us
"Living - once really living" (2022) is the British remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 classic "Ikiru". The film addresses a central theme of the working world: taking responsibility. Bill Nighy, perhaps in the role of his life, screenwriter Ishiguro and the film itself have been nominated for several British film awards.
Unfiltered working realities. The apprenticeship of a skilled canner
A critical look at archival vocational guidance films can sharpen one's view of major changes in the world of work and occupations. Making, taking a closer look at a Swiss television report on the apprenticeship of canners from the 1960s, worth it.
Dystopias of the working world
After more than a century, Katharina Gruzei's reinterpretation of the very first film in film history, ‘Workers Leaving the Factory’, shows a grim picture of the world of work and gives food for thought: Has the situation of workers deteriorated so much and what kind of worklife are we even heading towards?
Bossnapping à la Cantona
In the last two decades in particular, disputes between management and workers in France have become increasingly intense. The so-called "bossnapping", the hostage taking of management, masterfully staged by Éric Cantona in the Netflix series ‘Inhuman Resources’ (2020), provides a telling example.
Eastern German Women. Self-realisation through employment
As a woman you always have to be better than the best man in the team. That's the minimum for a successful woman, where patriarchy works." This is how Maria Gross, a cook and restaurateur from Thuringia, sums up the situation of East German Women (2019) in a MDR-documentary by Lutz Pehnert.
Between enlightenment and ‘plugging’. A history of vocational guidance films on nursing
Combating nursing shortages through film has a history. A W-o-W film evening explored the changing nature of the nursing profession through vocational guidance films over the last 80 years.
Capturing ‘Each and Every Moment” of nurses in training
A W-o-W film evening contrasted vocational guidance films with "Each and Every Moment", a heartfelt documentary by Nicolas Philibert on training of nurses at the La Croix Saint-Simon hospital in the suburbs of Paris.