Area Premiere! Sleep Dealer | (2008) dir Alex Rivera, w/ Luis Fernando Peña, Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas [90 min]
In this haunting, inventive vision of the near future, the world is divided by closed borders, but connected through a digital network that ties together people around the world. Memo is a self-taught hacker living in a sleepy Mexican village. After his house is destroyed in a reckless remote-control bombing, and driven by feelings of guilt and a need to earn money, Memo heads to the massive border city of Tijuana to find work and help his family start again. On the way, Memo meets the beautiful Luz, an aspiring journalist who dreams of writing a story that might one day change the world, but makes her living off of selling her memories on the ‘net – a blog, straight from the brain. One anonymous buyer is strangely eager for memories of Memo, so Luz maintains her relationship with him by helping him get the implants necessary to work in the incredible factories where workers plug their nervous systems into machines doing construction in other countries. But these dangerous hi-tech workshops are a far cry from what Memo expected. The workers frequently toil until they collapse, earning the factories the nickname ‘sleep dealers.’ As Memo works, Luz sells more installments of his story to her mysterious reader. When the identity of Luz’s reader is revealed, a chain of events is set in motion that will connect three strangers, and change their lives – and maybe even the world – forever.
Please visit www.brattlefilm.org for showtimes and advance tickets!
