S3 E21: "Nomadland" and Laborers on the Open Road

In this episode, our three hosts Juan, Diaodiao and Ina discuss ‘Nomadland,’ a recent favorite of ours and of the film festival award circuit (winner of the top prize at the Venice Film Festival). We try to put into words the ennui and other hard-to-grasp feelings the film evokes. We examine our own relationships with nature and the land on which we live, and we dive into the thorny social issue of caring for elderly laborers in both the U.S. and China. In this episode, you’ll hear: 00:00-07:30 First impressions of “Nomadland”07:30 - Frances McDormand’s sublime performance and how the movie can’t be contained by one genre 08:20 - How the film portrays space through storytelling and cinematography, the juxtaposition of the endless road and the cramped van 11:37 - The relationship between human and nature and land in the modern society 14:47 - The real social issues behind this poetic film 19:06 - How China and and the U.S. face similar yet different social issues with aging workers 23:32 - The decline of the welfare capitalism 31:07 - The nomadic lifestyle of those who turned away from the city life and the realities of being on the road37:06 - How the movie manages a social critique without undermining individuals’ dignity, resourcefulness and resilience Links：Millions of elderly laborers, who’s in charge of their retirement? https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1337242 ”Bitter Flowers” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z788IgjZDaY “Policing the open road” https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/policing-the-open-road/ Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review. RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs. Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)