Sleep Dealer: Border control, mind control, and privatized water

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan – Sleep Dealer, director Alex Rivera’s first film, explores a dystopian future of corporate-controlled water where Americans indenture the nervous systems of would-be Mexican immigrants to operate robots across the border.

Labeled as a low-budget science fiction film, Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter applauds Sleep Dreamer, claiming that it “takes many of today’s givens — the Internet, video-sharing sites, outsourcing, illegal immigration, globalization — and just imagines a more malevolent reality.”

New York Magazine reviews the film as jam-packed with sly satirical gestures.

Sleep Dealer has accrued numerous accolades, including winner of the Amnesty International Film Prize at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival, as well as the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance Film Festival in 2008. It was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2008. View the trailer.

Source: Traverse City Film Festival