Canned Dreams and Lucid Nightmares: Katja Gauriloff and the Cinema of Precarity

Citation

Moffat K Canned Dreams and Lucid Nightmares: Katja Gauriloff and the Cinema of Precarity. In: Blackmore E, Knopf K & Pearson WG (eds.) First Takes, Fourth World: Global Indigenous Films. Volume 2. London: Routledge.

Abstract
Throughout her career, Finnish-Sámi filmmaker Katja Gauriloff has addressed a variety of issues facing the Sámi people. However, her 2012 documentary Canned Dreams focuses on more global concerns, in this case, the exploits of the global food industry and market. Following a single and unremarkable can of ravioli as it travels from the factory floor to supermarket shelf, Gauriloff maps out the can’s journey across several continents, documenting its imprint on people and the environment. She captures these experiences in a series of personal interviews with the workers involved at all levels of production where they share their dreams and aspirations. This chapter critically analyses Gauriloff’s approach and stylistic choices, positioning her film as a form of ‘precariat cinema.’ Here, I combine the work of Lauren Berlant (2011), Alice Bardan (2013) and Slavoj Žižek (2001), exploring how themes of precariousness manifest in multiple, complex ways. This will involve assessing how effectively Gauriloff critiques the exploitative practices of the global food industry, which now largely operate within a neoliberal capitalist system, where precarious conditions of people are now a normal state of affairs.

Keywords
Katja Gauriloff, precariat cinema, poetic documentary, Lauren Berlant

Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming