Hardly Working

A film by Total Refusal
Country: Austria
Year: 2022
Length: 20:30

EPK
Stills/poster/portrait directors

Synopsis
Hardly Working sheds a limelight on the very characters that normally remain in the background of video games: NPCs. They are non-player characters that populate the digital world as extras to create the appearance of normality. A laundress, a stable boy, a street sweeper and a carpenter are observed with ethnographic precision. They are Sisyphus machines, whose labour routines, activity patterns as well as bugs and malfunctions paint a vivid analogy for work under capitalism.

Festivals
1. Locarno International Film Festival (Schweiz, August 2022) - Pardi di domani Best Direction Award & Junior Jury Award
2. Vancouver International Film Festivak VIFF (Canada, September 2022)
3. Black Canvas Festival de Cine Contemporáneo (Mexico, October 2022)
4. Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Canada, October 2022)
5. Seminci - Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain, October 2022)
6. VIENNALE (Austria, October 2022)
7. Filmmaker Film Festival (Italy, November 2022)
8. IKF Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (Switzerland, November 2022)
9. KFFK/Kurzfilmfestival Köln N°16 (Germany, November 2022)
10. Bosphorus Film Festival (Turkey, November 2022)
11. Uppsala International Short Film Festival (Sweden, November 2022)
12. Filmmaker Film Festival (Italy, November 2022) - Premio della Giuria Award
13. PÖFF Shorts (Estonia, November 2022)
14. Best Austrian Animation Festival (Austria, December 2022) - Best Austrian Animation ASIFA Award + Audience Award
15. Usak Film Festival (Turkey, December 2022) - Best Screenplay
16. Zubroffka (Poland, December 2022)
17. Alternative Video Festival Belgrade (Serbia, December 2022)
18. Tbilisi (Georgia, December 2022)
19. Winter Apricots: Prilep International Film Festival (Macedonia, December 2022) - Best Concept
20. Max Ophüls Preis (Germany, Janurary 2023)
21. Vilnius Internation Short Film Festival (Lithuania, January 2023)
22. FIPA Doc International Documentary Film Festival (France, January 2023)
23. Stuttgarter Filmwinter (Germany, January 2023)
24. Kaboom Animation Festival (Netherlands, March 2023)
25. Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg (Germany, March 2023) -  Special Mention
26. Diagonale - Festival des österreichischen Films (Austria, March 2023)
27. Prague Short Film festival (Czech Republic, March 2023)
28. Glasgow Film Festival (Scotland, March 2023)
29. Go short (Netherlands, March 2023)
30. Zagreb Dox (Croatia, March 2023)
31. IFF FEBIOFEST Bratislava (Slovakia, March 2023)
32. 24th MUSIC & CINEMA Marseille (France, March 2023)
33. Milan Machinima Festival (Italy, March 2023)

Awarded with European Film Academy Nomination

Cast
A_F_M_ASBtownfolk_02 as “The Street Sweeper”, A_F_M_SDslums_02 as “The Laundress”, A_M_M_NBXdockworkers_01 as “The Carpenter”, A_M_M_VALlaorer_01 as “The Stable Hand”
Narrator: Jacob Banigan

Crew
Direction/Screenplay/Cinematography/Sound recording/Editing & Script: Total Refusal / Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf
Sound design: Bernhard Zorzi
Composer: Adrian Haim
Translation: Michael Stumpf
Modding: RCPisawesome
Scenery: Rockstar Games

Supported by the Kunstraum Steiermark stipend (Land Steiermark) and Kunsthaus Graz. Realised within the framework of the European Media Art Platforms (EMAP) programme at Werkleitz (DE) with support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union.