The list of series in which Uta Briesewitz, born in Leverkusen, is long and also incredibly top-class: with “The Rad of Time”, “Black Mirror”, “Stranger Things”, “Westworld” or recently two episodes of “Severance”, she has long since established herself as a-list director for series in Hollywand. In her feature film debut “American sweatshop“Briesewitz now takes a look at the life of a young content presenter in Florida, but fails to go down psychologically properly. Unfortunately, the plot does not always look realistic.“ American Sweatshop ”, on the other hand, is strong when he works against voyeurism and does not show the disturbing images. The problem that even children meet slightly disturbing content is also touched.
The focus is on Daisy (Lili Reinhart), who has to decide which videos on the Internet will be deleted and which can continue to exist. One day Daisy discovers a clip that will no longer let go of it. Again and again nightmarish fragments of the film flash in front of Daisy's inner eye. When she is asked by her boss (Christiane Paul) not to extinguish the clip, she traces the trail of the video in order to still get something like justice, even if she is in danger …
All the disturbing videos that she has to watch every day pass on Daisy (Lili Reinhart).
Their anger and despair can be understood very well, only Daisy's investigations become increasingly unplausible. She tracks down the creator of the video and drives down, even enters the rooms of film production. However, their actions have few consequences, which means that “American Sweatshop” continues to lose credibility. Daisy's environment authentically describes screenwriter Matthew Nemeth: The 25-year-old works in an unadorned open-plan office and celebrates with her team, after doing work she takes care of the neighboring daughter. Back in the office, she clicks through the reports listlessly and likes to smoke a joint during the lunch break. Actually, she wanted to become a nurse, but did not take the exam. Her tinder dates are superficial.
Of course, one wonders why Daisy continues to do this dirty job when she has a dream that she could pursue instead. But then you are already in the office with her and click on and almost forget it. The decisions pass quickly and are made pragmatically. If an animal is killed, it is cruelty to animals; If it is cooked, it's a cooking show. Fetus in the mixer? Of course deleted! If the head of a suicide strikes on the asphalt, then the video is actually removed unless he gives a speech before the jump – then the facts are already significantly more complicated due to freedom of expression.
After work, first to the psychiatrist
Unfortunately, such exciting discussion approaches in “American Sweatshop” are choked up with prefabricated sentences from the boss: “We are not censors, we are moderators.” That is enough to iron out the topic. Nevertheless, you get to know the narrow ridge between extinguishing and approval, on which the team is constantly located – and also, like some with the horror that you try in the videos, including meetings with the company's own psychologist. Briesewitz stages clicking through the numerous videos such as a disturbing wax dream, underlining the scenes with Lorn's oppressive track “Acid Rain”.
Lorn alias Marcus Ortega sings about evil dreams in a cool world full of cruel things. His appeal: hold through! That could also serve as a company motto of the Cleaning company. Briesewitz was inspired by the documentary “The Cleaners” (2018) for “American Sweatshop”, in which Hans Block and Moritz Rieseweck accompany five real content moderators in their work. In the fictional version, the camera from Jörg Widmer deliberately shows the offensive videos only in sections. Often you only read the headings of the videos or hear disturbing sound. The crucial scene is that when Daisy meets the horror video. Instead of the clip itself, you can only see how the excerpts of the video are reflected on Daisy's retina – and so you encounter your own horror ideas about what can be seen in the darkest corners of the Internet.
Conclusion: “American Sweatshop” tangles between (not always credible) psychological thrillers and (emotionally underminating) psychosta study. Above all, you keep shaking your head how “bad” the internet can be – but you actually know that beforehand.
We saw “American Sweatshop” at the Munich Film Festival in 2025, where he celebrated its world premiere.