Shift

An unconventional love story set in the world of private prisons, where inmates work for giant corporations.

Premiere Date
April 1, 2000
Length
60 minutes
Headshot of woman
Producer

Kelly Anderson

Kelly Anderson is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker whose documentaries include My Brooklyn (America ReFramed), Every Mother's Son (POV/ITVS), and Out At Work (HBO). Her work has received the Tribeca Audience Award, a GLAAD Award, and a national Emmy nomination. She currently chairs the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College.

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The Film

An unconventional love story set in the South in the near future, Shift unfolds in a world of high unemployment, low-wage service jobs, tough anti-crime laws, and private prisons where inmates earn less than minimum wage working for giant corporations. One night Louis, an inmate doing corporate telemarketing, calls Melanie, a waitress in a South Carolina airport coffee shop. Frustrated with her dead-end job and unemployed husband, Melanie flirts with Louis and a volatile relationship begins.

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