Meet the millennials fighting back against unpaid work.
Call Me Intern - This doc follows three interns-turned-activists who refuse to accept the idea that young people should have to work for free to kick-start their careers. Their stories challenge youth stereotypes and help give a voice to the growing movement for intern rights across the world.
Unemployed and frustrated, David and Nathalie set out to land an internship so they can examine the system from the inside in an act of guerilla film-making. After David accepts an internship at the United Nations, they move into a small blue tent on the Geneva lakefront and begin documenting his unpaid intern experience. Their action sparks a global press storm, challenging their roles as filmmakers.
Meanwhile, Kyle interns for fortune-500 company Warner Music while living in a homeless shelter in New York City. Marisa works as an unpaid intern for Obama’s re-election campaign, while fending off unwanted sexual harassment from her supervisors.
Each of these interns faces a choice: accept the system the way it is or put their careers on the line to speak out against it. Their individual actions help give visibility and strength to a growing intern movement. Their journeys reveal the motivations and pressures that lead so many millennials to work for free while pop-culture extracts and testimonies from academics, politicians and employers give us a sense of how wide the internship phenomenon has spread. (1 hr 7 min, 2019, Switzerland, U.S. +)
Shorts (to precede):
Lambeth Lights - An homage to Charlie Chaplin's 'City Lights'. Shot in the streets where he grew up. Starring BAFTA-listed Harry Macqueen ('Hinterland'), Imogen Morris and Bill Fellows ('Lady Macbeth'). (2017, 24 min, U.K.)