CANCELLED- Deutscher Filmklub:
The Cleaners

Fri, 03/20/2020
6:00 PM Goethe-Institut Toronto

This month we are watching "The Cleaners" by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck in our #DeutscherFilmklub.

The documentary film shows the gigantic shadow industry of the big internet companies. To escape prosecution by the judiciary, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others use external companies to delete or block all incriminating or illegal material. This kind of censorship centre is located in  Manila, Philippines. Here, around the clock, employees delete or block out everything that violates the law or is unreasonable for users. This form of work has serious consequences for the employees' psyches and mental health, as they put them under enormous pressure to sift through and remove as much digital material as possible.
 
The film and theatre director and musician Hans Block was born in Berlin in 1985. He studied drums and directing before he became known throughout Germany for a number of productions and performances. He also works as an audiobook author and director. He won the international audio play festival PRIX MARULIC for his audio play, "Don Don Don Quijote – Attackéee."

Moritz Riesewieck, born 1985 in the Ruhr area, is known as a German film and theatre director. He also studied in Berlin and his productions have been shown among others at film festivals in Dortmund, Berlin and Mexico City. In 2015, his innovative works were awarded with the Elsa Neumann Scholarship of the state of Berlin. In addition, his essay "Digitale Drecksarbeit" was recently published as a book.

Together, Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck develop cross-media narrative formats under the name "Laokoon". The documentary film was also made in collaboration between the two directors.

The film is shown in German with English subtitles. Admission is free, but the number of seats is limited, so please register at bib-toronto@goethe.de