Gigging
2020 · 10m · USA
Directed by Jake Fertig
Genres: comedy, documentary, satire
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, provocative
A mock-documentary following three gig economy workers — an Uber driver, a Fiverr filmmaker, a Rover dog walker — who've fully bought the corporate fiction that their exploitation is opportunity. Plays it straight while the irony rots underneath.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Anti-capitalist mockumentary is the easiest genre to do badly. Fertig wins by refusing to let his subjects realize they're the punchline — that's the actual horror.
Fertig's mock-documentary works because every gig-worker character earnestly believes the corporate pitch deck — American Movie sincerity colliding with Sorry to Bother You satire. The straight-played irony is the form.
Mockumentary where every gig-economy character earnestly believes the corporate pitch deck — playing it absolutely straight while the irony rots underneath is the discipline that makes this kind of satire work. Three braided portraits (Uber driver, Fiverr filmmaker, Rover walker) is ambitious for a short.
Reviews
Carried out with rich irony and hilarious performances.