From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally, and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected.
Who are the people in this shadow workforce? THE GIG IS UP brings their stories into the light. Lured by the promise of flexible work hours, independence, and control over time and money, workers from around the world have found a very different reality. Work conditions are often dangerous, pay often changes without notice, and workers can effectively be fired through deactivation or a bad rating.
Through an engaging global cast of characters, THE GIG IS UP reveals how the magic of technology we are being sold might not be magic at all.
Shannon Walsh has written and directed 5 award-winning feature documentaries. Her work has been theatrically released in Canada, the UK and South Africa, and broadcast on Al-Jazeera, CBC, Discovery channel, Netflix and others. Her work has screened in festivals globally such as Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, La Rochelle, Full Frame, Rome, and Beijing as well as in museums including the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Walsh is an Associate Professor of film production at the University of British Coloumbia. She is a 2020-2021 Guggenheim Fellow.
