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Director's Statement
In December 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute published a report stating that 800 million workers will lose their jobs in the next 12 years due to automation. On the engineering side, however, millions of new positions will open. This on-going industrial revolution will mostly affect manual workers, who will now need to make some radical changes in order to survive. Tomas’ story is an early example of this.
With A NEW SHIFT I wanted to create a bridge between the two groups affected by the movement. Manual workers on the one side and corporate industries on the other side.
The last industrial revolution was driven by coal and steam. The current one is driven by smart computer algorithms. Tomas experiences 100 years of human labour transformation in just one year. In the film, we explore what this transformation does with our bodies, psyche, behaviour, how we shape, how we look. On a deeper level, it touches on the subject to which I am returning repeatedly: the disappearance of authenticity from people's lives, through technological development.
Miners are straight-forward people. If you are digging 1,000 meters under the surface in 35 degrees, facing danger on a daily basis, you don’t think about how you look or communicate. But when one enters the job market looking for a job as a programmer, a communication game begins, with the candidate and the company both pretending to be better than they are. When actually getting the job, these communication games develop even further. You are often forced to play along with small political games, to present things in certain ways. Soft skills play a crucial role. Does this mean we’re deviating too far from our instincts?
I wanted to answer this by placing the coal mine and the corporate environment in contrast. And I hope Tomas’ story is so surprising and inspiring, that it will touch audiences with both these backgrounds. On the one hand, I hope to inspire companies and show them why it is a good idea to give a 50-year-old man a chance. I also hope that Tomas’ story creates a better understanding between the middle and the worker’s class. And finally, I hope the film will give confidence to the many manual labourers who are losing their jobs at the moment. As Tomas shows, you can take your life into your own hands at any age.