Sleep Dealer

The film Sleep Dealer directed by Alex Rivera sits at the intersection of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and ecocriticism. It is the story of a man named Memo and his struggles to provide for his family in a modern time where people have nodes that allow them to directly interface with computers and robots. I am unsure what part of Mexico or South America that he is living in but Memo lived in a small river valley called Santa Anna. The river had been dammed and Memo’s family were no longer able to grow crops due to the high cost of water. Memo gets in trouble when he overhears a government transmission. They conduct a drone strike on his home which results in the death of his father. Memo leaves his home in search of work and nodes. Memo ends up meeting a woman that helps him get his nodes and without his knowledge is selling her memories of him to support herself. They start to fall in love and Memo gets his nodes. This allows him to find employment as a welding robot. He ends up working extremely long hours and sending the money home.It is obvious that the working conditions for Memo were less than safe. I believe that there is a scene where he is allowed to work an 18 hour shift and ends up “dying” as his robot falls off the skyscraper he is working on. After some time it is revealed that he has co-workers that are dying and Memo ends up helping his boss drag the co-worker off of the main work floor. The story takes a very interesting twist when the drone pilot that killed his father is the one buying information about Memo from his girlfriend. They end up meeting in person, and that results in the pilot helping Memo destroy the dam that had blocked the river that had provided for him and his family for years.

Throughout this film it was easy to see how this film related to CRT and ecocriticism. The CRT aspect to me has to do with the American outsourcing of work to lower income populations outside of the country where regulations are less strict. In my eyes it is accessing the workers, without actually having to provide reasonable wages, occupational safety standards, or having anyone else enter the North American continent. It is obvious that there is unfair treatment of these employees as well. On the other side of this there is the ecocritical lens. This film starts with the need for water and ends with the dam breaking and people having access to water again. It is obvious that Memo’s family had a strong connection to the earth. Without access to natural resources like water, they were unable to provide for themselves. All in all, this was an excellent film that examines hard topics like worker equality, and environmental exploitation.