Alienated labor's hybrid subjects: Sorry to Bother You and the tradition of the economic rights film

Leshu Torchin

doi:10.1525/fq.2019.72.4.29

Alienated labor's hybrid subjects: Sorry to Bother You and the tradition of the economic rights film

Leshu Torchin

Film Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Leshu Torchin uses Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley's genre-defying take on race, slavery, and capitalism in 21st century America, as a launching pad for a broader discussion of what she terms the “economic rights” film. Often global in scope, these films argue for rights to sustenance, shelter, education, health, and labor while mapping out the myriad systems that impede access to these rights. Torchin suggests that Sorry's playful hybridity, combining science fiction, performance art, and even corporate-video mockumentary to invoke recent experimentations in black American media, belies a preoccupation around labor that positions the film within the “economic rights” film's robust legacy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	29-37
Journal	Film Quarterly
Volume	72
Issue number	4
Early online date	4 Jun 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2019.72.4.29
Publication status	Published - 2019

Keywords

Economic Rights
Race
Film
Capitalism
Labour
Hybridity

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Torchin_2019_FQ_SorrytoBotherYou_VoR
© 2019 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2019.72.4.29.
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AB - Leshu Torchin uses Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley's genre-defying take on race, slavery, and capitalism in 21st century America, as a launching pad for a broader discussion of what she terms the “economic rights” film. Often global in scope, these films argue for rights to sustenance, shelter, education, health, and labor while mapping out the myriad systems that impede access to these rights. Torchin suggests that Sorry's playful hybridity, combining science fiction, performance art, and even corporate-video mockumentary to invoke recent experimentations in black American media, belies a preoccupation around labor that positions the film within the “economic rights” film's robust legacy.

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KW - Film

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Alienated labor's hybrid subjects: Sorry to Bother You and the tradition of the economic rights film

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Keywords

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