+ HOME + NEWSLETTER + PROGRAMME 2024 +FILMS 2024

Policy Wonks |  


by Sean Grattan


USA, 2024, 80 min

cast
General | Anna Hopkins
Major | David Martínez
Photographer | John C. Sweet
Professor | Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió
Secretary | Jasmin Blasco
Accountant | Marina Libel
Worker Allen | Brit Manor
Worker Wrench | Jenny Greer
Teacher | Mireya Lucio
Body Builder | Christopher Rivas and Melissa Donaher
Broker | Tyler Matthew Oyer
Prisoner | Evan Hyde

crew
Writer, Director, Producer,  Camera, Costumes, Production Design, Editing, Sound Design | Sean Grattan
Assistant Director | Nic Addante
Sound Recordist | James Conover
Production Lead | Ian Page
Assistant Camera | James Gonzalez
Production Assistants | Ryan Jeffery, Ben Tong, Alex Tyson, Lisa Zhou
Special Props | Ian Page
Broker Costume & Makeup | Tyler Matthew Oyer
Body Builder bullet wound | Kaia Neely
Color Grade | Ben Neufeld
Dialogue Editor, Re-recording mixer | Jeff Cendejas
Special Visual Effects | Martin Dario Gonzalez
 Policy Wonks is a conceptual pseudo-drama revolving around the ambitious Bureau of Advancement, a political action group operating in Los Angeles that loves money, guns and yoga. Mixing philosophical inquiry with political satire, Policy Wonks takes the cold logics of neoliberalism to their cinematic conclusion: relentless exposition twisting through a hollow core of violent irrationality, phony wellness practices, and the culty adulations of “exceptional” humans. As the mind-melting ideological landscape unfolds like verbal jelly, the crisp California sky blasts bright light over the psychological shadows of the characters.
Led by General, the vacantly charismatic leader, and Major, her hot-headed lieutenant, the Bureau plans to establish a commercial utopia where anyone is free to transcend their material conditions –as long as they abide by the Bureau’s strictly enforced metrics of talent, effort and capital accumulation. But as they seek to actualize the central beliefs of liberalism – scientific rationality and private property as supreme arbiters of value – they encounter a series of obstacles to their utopian vision.
Probing the internal contradictions of political and economic liberalism, Policy Wonks offers a dangerously playful demonstration of Western existential anxiety. Structured by a unique synthesis of cinematic genres, from technocratic sci-fi to absurdist folk-horror and deconstructed action, Policy Wonks sets in motion a sharp-witted morality play that challenges the supremacy of individualism and the zero sum hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie.
+ CONTACT + FILM FREEWAY + IMPRINT