Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman take the viewer on a tour of the part of Silicon Valley that doesn't get much publicity--East Palo Alto and the Whiskey Gulch area, where immigrant families are living three to an apartment and monster corporations such as Hewlett-Packard employ tons of temp workers at minimum wage without benefits. The giddy predictions of high-tech gurus waxing poetic on the future world of computers (and their profit margins) are intercut with footage of assembly line workers at Hewlett-Packard who are definitely not living the Silicon Valley dream. While painting a broader picture of tech sweatshops, Secrets of Silicon Valley focuses on two individuals: a former H-P temp named Raj Jayadev, fired for raising safety and health issues, who has a different perspective on the computer industry from that of H-P's CEO; and Magda Escobar, who started Plugged-In, an enterprise intended to bridge the technology gap between the Silicon Valley elite and less privileged minority youth. Offering corrective vision to those under the impression that the computer industry in Silicon Valley has engineered some sort of workers' paradise, this hard-hitting exposé is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Van Vleck)
Secrets of Silicon Valley
(2001) 60 min. $250. Bullfrog Films. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-56029-891-X. Volume 17, Issue 1
Secrets of Silicon Valley
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