1. Sleep Dealer is a 2008 science fiction film directed by Alex Rivera that depicts a future where physical labor can be performed remotely through networks that connect workers' brains to machines. 2. The film explores themes of immigration, globalization, and gender roles. The main character Memo Cruz immigrates from Mexico to work in a "sleep dealer" factory in Tijuana that allows workers to provide remote labor to the U.S. 3. The film also depicts the character Luz, a woman who uploads her memories to a social media-like platform in order to earn money. This dramatizes how technology can impact traditional gender roles and types of work.

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Student
Instructor's Name
Course
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Gender and Gender Roles
Introduction
Sleep Dealer is a movie that depicts the idea of futurism in its entire plot. Also' it is a film that
with a Science fiction movie, directed by Alex Rivera.
Alex Rivera, born in 1973, is based in the City of New York of New, a filmmaker and media
artist for the past one and a half decades ago. His career as has been producing Latino stories for
the since he began his career 15 years ago. Alex Rivera has won various awards. The most
important one is that one he won at the Sundance Film Festival awards. The movie by the name
Sleep Dealer is the first one he featured in.
Sleep Dealer came out in 2008. The whole plot of the film revolves around the idea of
Immigration and how the technological inventions can release the immigrants from the
oppressions of the foreign country. The future world we see in this movie is one that is
globalized digital network connectivity that connects the brains and the minds of the citizens.
Secondly, there is developed and advanced military skill and realistic labor. There are closed
borders that surround this world. Therefore, an attempt by strangers to connect to the servers of
the network of this world is a great risk to their lives. (Alex Rivera 2008) The setting of this
movie is on the border between the United States of America and the Mexico. Memo Cruz, a
young adult from Mexico. Cruz dreams of bigger and better things than the agricultural life. He
makes the decision of going to Tijuana to seek some job. There is barren land in Mexico which

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cannot support farming. The experience makes Cruz start his journey to foreign land. He lands
himself on a job. The event happens after he had made satellite disc to hack into the frequency of
drones monitoring the Dell Rio water dam. U.S sees the inadvertent hack. As an act of terrorism,
drones are sent to eliminate the threat. Unfortunately, Memos father pays with his life. As a U.S.
pilot uses a drone to destroy Memo's satellite as well as his family's home Memos father is
injured with a missile then is targeted as a terrorist and ultimately murdered by the pilot. Cruz
then chooses to travel to Tijuana to work in the sleep dealer factories. The Tijuana workers to
provide virtual labor for the U.S. through machines that perform the job in the U.S. Memo then
sends money back to his family trying to make up for causing the death of his father. Memo
meets a young woman, Luz, another struggling immigrant from Mexico who is a writer who was
plugging into a program called TruNode that allows her to get paid for her memories. Luz gets
paid by the pilot, Ramirez, who killed Memo's father for her memories of her encounter with
Memo. Through her memories Ramirez realizes the mistake he made in killing Memo's dad. He
then crosses the U.S. Mexican border to apologize and make up for killing Memo's father. Memo
then hatches a plan involving Ramirez and Luz to help Ramirez. His plan includes connecting to
the U.S. network using a company drone to blast the Del Rio water dam to return the ancestral
water back to Memo's old village. Ramirez and Memo knew they could never go back to their
native homelands. Memo decides to stay in Tijuana and starts growing beans and corn like his
father did while Ramirez travels further South in Mexico.
Alex Rivera having grown up in a multi-cultural family he directs his movies based on the
assumptions and ideas that cut across the immigration, race, global economy, empowerment,
education, ethics, culture, and gender. Sleep Dealer addresses these issues explicitly by involving
the major and the minor characters that play their roles well. The primary cause of this paper is

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to look at how Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, 2009), tackles the issues of gender. Secondly, the role
played by men and women in the film about the political pattern coming from the mid1900s that
combine progressive politics with the focus on the growing the economy (neoliberalism) in Latin
America.
Development
Sleep Dealer depicts the roles of female and male in a society of Latin America when the
characters Luz and Memo Cruz play the various role in the movie. Cruz Is a man who plays his
role to depict the repercussions of Neoliberalism on the outsourcing of labor and conversely
places men in the provider role which represents a return to conservative ideals a women's role in
the family. Luz is a female character who struggles with her job of writing to earn a living and
become independent of man. She is a hacker, coyotes. She makes use of her "node job" to create
an opportunity to upload her memories online so that she can make a sale, earn a living. From
what we have seen, as a result of neoliberalism, there is the tendency for the women to work in
the fields that require high competence in technology. Luz uploads her memories and sell online
is kind of work requires sound knowledge in the way technologies operate. In the film Sleep
Dealer the lead male role and female role are used to depict the defeminization of labor,
dramatizing social media and of the repercussions of neoliberal policies on the outsourcing of
workforce. Luz, the female character in the film, is used to depict the dramatization of social
media and how the social aspect of a women's nature removes them from this type of labor. In
the film, the TruNode is the dramatization of social media which is similar to Facebook in that it
makes use of memories. Luz sells her memories of her encounters with Memo in Tijuana for
money to pay off her debts. The male role is used to depict dramatization of the repercussions of
neoliberal policies on the outsourcing of labor. If they work too much time in these outsourcing

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type jobs, it could result in severe deficits to the workers. If overworked workers can suffer
illnesses caused by fatigue and surges which could even cause death or blindness. Also, the film
exaggerates the traditional male and female roles within the family. The man works to provide
daily bread for his family he then exhausts himself to send money to his mother and brother so
they can thrive. The labor feminization, due to neoliberal policies combine with the body
somewhat altered the women's role in the family. Following what we saw in the Maquiladoras
documentary in Mexico, this is the opposite of what is occurring in the film. Women were the
ones who moved to cities in Mexico with large assembly plant called Maquiladoras that they
could provide for their family, but because of the deregulation of labor due to Neoliberal reforms
workers were seen as disposable and taking advantage of poor working conditions, harassment,
and low pay. From the opening scene of the film the male character, Memo narrates as we see
the dramatization of the outsourcing of labor. The toll takes on the work we see the repetitive
movements of this combination between as she walks in the overworking important in long hours
at work or loss of sight connects overworking and overwhelming poor working conditions. (Alex
2009)The beginning sequence uses these techniques of a lot of dissolves, and fades in and outs to
blurry colors of bright highly saturated reds, oranges, and yellows, and cuts to Dutch tilts to
portray the disorientation experienced by the workers due to being overworked. Also, the use of
sounds of sharp white noises of machinery, and his heartbeat is heard throughout, and fluid
movement like those in the body not only to show you the disorientation and instability
experienced due to the overwhelming nature of his work and hallucinations but also the
combining of body and machine with the dispersal of technology/machines and the significant
sounds of the human body. Poor working conditions and overworking
GENDER

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Another issue that has been presented in the film is that of Gender. The first point we note about
gender is that of gender identity. The characters in the movie represent two sides of gender.
Memo is the main character that represents the male while Luz is the female character who
represents the female. Apart from these characters we have others who represent both gender
identity.
The second point is the Gender expression. This is the way individuals communicate their gender
identity externally to others through clothing, voice, haircut and other presentation forms. In the
movie, women have been portrayed as secretive, they do not reveal their mind to men, and
another point is that women have been depicted as untrustworthy. Luz hides her secret to destroy
Memo. She takes the memories of Cruz and sells them without sharing the information with him.
This shows that that Luz was secretive in her moves towards Cruz. We also see that Luz is the
one who befriends Cruz. This play shows that men are naïve and can be manipulated by women.
Lastly, we see Cruz cry when his father died. This shows that just like women, men are also
emotional too.
Thirdly the issue of transgender is in connection with the fact of gender. Transgender is a term
that may be used to describe the behavior or identity that falls outside of the stereotypical gender
norms. There are no scenes in that movie that addresses the issue of transgender; the playwright
concentrated mostly concentrated on the issue of the gender identity so much. Since the film is
futuristic, the message being put across may be that in future, there will be a lot of emphasis on
the gender identity. (Federicci 2012)
Conclusion:

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In conclusion, the movie of the Sleep Dealer is one of its forms because it addresses the facts that
affect the daily life of the human being. These issues include the issue of government response to
terrorism, the gender issue, the role of Women and men in the society, the culture, the
experiences of the immigrants in the foreign country and the technological advancement. These
are just but a few themes that are addressed by this movie. Movie of Sleep Dealer is very
inventive with the way the role of women and men has been depicted. The movie can be used as
the agent of change of attitudes towards women in term of labor provision. The idea that women
can also provide skillful labor is well shown in the character. It has been shown clearly through
Luz who is the female character working hard just like Cruz to earn a living. Women should
never see themselves as weak the way many societies do in most parts of the world. Luz proves
that women can also take part in the technological development. She uploads her memories and
makes sales online. Technology acts as a source of employment. On the other hand, the movie
also advises on how to use technology to improve our productivity and connectivity across the
world.

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Bibliography
Alex Rivera, Dr. 2008. Sleep Dealer. This is that production and likely story. New York: Free
Press.
Alex, Rivera. 2009. Sleep Dealer. New York: Harvard UP.
Federici, Silvia. 2012. On effective labor. New York: Free Press.