THE CLEANERS

THE CLEANERS, 2018

Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands, Italy, USA |DCP, Color, 88 |English
Director: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck
Participants: Antonio Garcia Martinez, Nicole Wong, Illma Gore

In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, hundreds of women and men are sitting in front of their computer screens in lifeless offices tucked inside skyscrapers. They are called content moderators. Through 10-hour shifts, they scan social media pages like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and pinpoint questionable photographs and videos. They get to decide what can stay and what is unsuitable under the rules set forth by the Silicon Valley. The cruelty of this traumatic occupation and the great burden it puts on these content moderators also influence their senses and personalities. Fake news and online censorship transforms the utopia of the global Internet collective into a nightmare. In their first feature-length film, the directors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck depict how the utopic social media dream is disappearing, while they question the boundaries of channels such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.