Apr 28
Ragtag Cinema Columbia, MO
TicketsBrian Ott
Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Sociology, the University of Missouri
Tokyo Uber Blues— The Promise and Reality of Platform Labor during Covid-19
Program Description
Platform labor has rapidly spread over the past decade, transforming industries like transportation, delivery, and care work, among others. Tokyo Uber Blues, through the lens of filmmaker Taku Aoyagi, expertly portrays the promise and reality of platform labor. Following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Aoyagi, facing financial strain, took his bike to Tokyo to try to make it delivering fulltime for Uber Eats. Based on sociological scholarship on platform labor, Dr. Ott will explain what constitutes platform labor, provide an overview of platform laborers in the U.S., and explain the disparate experiences of those who do platform labor for supplementary wages and those who are dependent on platform labor for their primary income.
Film Synopsis
During the 2020 pandemic lockdown, a young film school graduate moves to Tokyo with dreams of making fast money as an Uber bike courier. The reality is very different.
Unemployed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and with $40,000 of student debt, 26 year-old filmmaker Taku Aoyagi decides to try his luck at being an Uber Eats rider in the now empty streets of Tokyo. Shot on a mixture of smartphones and GoPros, Taku brings the audience on his daily rides, deliveries, and as he talks to himself and his peers about if gig work can actually offer a path to economic security.
Photo credit: Kani Releasing
About the Speaker
Brian Ott is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Missouri. Before arriving at Mizzou in 2023, Professor Ott completed his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Oregon and served as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Truman State University from 2017-2023.