Watch Ghosts with Shit Jobs

Ghosts with Shit Jobs is a thought-provoking science-fiction indie movie, released in 2012, which takes place in the future, specifically in 2040, where many of the current fears and anxieties of post-industrial societies have become a reality, such as climate change, low-waged jobs, and immigration. Directed, written, and produced by Jim Munroe, and starring Rachel MacMillan, Sean Lerner, and Jonah Hundert, the movie consists of four short documentaries that are interconnected by the common element of the fictional situation of the world in 2040.

The first documentary is about Jamaican migrant workers who work remotely from the United States, on tasks robots are unable to perform, such as manipulating algorithms for public transit systems, chip companies, and police surveillance. They do this work for very little salary, and the documentary follows the life of a young Jamaican migrant named Janice (played by MacMillan) who works on tasks that are too menial and unimportant to appeal to any machines, and the high cost it puts on her mental and physical health.

The second documentary is more satirical, as it portrays a future where the Chinese outsource low-wage jobs to North Americans, such as cleaning bathrooms, mopping the floors, and cleaning the toilets, due to the high labour cost of their own population. The documentary follows four Canadians who work cleaning the bathrooms of another Chinese company, and their encounters with a major Chinese tourism conglomerate that has a distinctly different work ethic than their own. It's a humorous acerbic response to the current outsourcing and globalization trend.

The third short film talks about the process of digitally preserving a dying North American city in 2040, which is a city which is about to become extinct. It's portrayed through the eyes of an archivist, who interviews locals, records buildings and empty houses, and attempts to document the architecture, the history, and the essence of the city. It's a contemplative and melancholic piece, which also explores the idea of legacies left and memories preserved.

The final documentary, and perhaps the most powerful one, is about the post-apocalyptic society established after a digital Great Crash in 2013, where everyone is forced to rely on hand-operated machines and mechanical switches, and society itself manages to recover, especially as it prevents humans and digital technology from becoming too co-dependent. The documentary portrays a touristic Chinese couple (Hundert and Lerner) visiting the United States of America to experience the way of life of the pre-2013 society, as well as witness the present, low-tech society that is affected by the crash.

Overall, Ghosts with Shit Jobs is a unique movie that poses the question: what happens to the types of jobs or tasks that are below the minimum acceptable income? These are tasks that machines or trained animals can't or won't do. The movie explores that concept with thoughtfulness, and the excellent editing and cinematography makes it believable that society could end up in this way.