About the only people who will be stunned by the revelations unmasked in Secrets of Silicon Valley are the ones who never guessed there was a man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz
The idea behind Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman's documentary about the new economy's social consequences for East Palo Alto, California, is to show that it takes more than "knowledge workers" to make the tech sector succeed.
Their predilection with physical labor is underscored from the very start, as the opening credits roll over footage of spinning flywheels and pumping pistons, artistically captured by cinematographers Marsha Kahm and Vincente Franco. The point is made early on by one of the film's two protagonists, Raj Jayadev, a second-generation Indian perma-temp assembling HP printers in San Jose.
"It's interesting that people see, feel, and buy all these computers, printers, hardware, and software," Jayadev said over stock footage of the assembly-line, "but they do not think that real people make those things, that human beings physically construct them. They must think our technology is sent down by some divine presence. It's phenomenal to think there could be such a massive public misconception."
Interviews about workplace oppression and the perils of union organizing are counterposed for maximum irony with lofty commentary on the "Information Revolution" from the likes of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, who can always be counted on for some good hyperbole.
Fortunately, this is not just another labor documentary unveiling the dirty secret that capitalism, even in the new economy of the 21st century, still sucks. The other side of the social jigsaw is represented in the film by Magda Escobar, the director of Plugged In, a youth-oriented nonprofit IT training center in the East Palo Alto ghetto of Whiskey Hill.
Escobar's clients are full of energy and optimism about their future in the burgeoning Information Society. In addition to training programs, they run a Web design business out of the center.
They are unintimidated by the money and power played with outside their hometown. As one of the kids at the storefront center tells the camera, "We love everything in Silicon Valley, because that's what we're trying to get into."
With the help of a decidedly un-computer savvy engineer, Jan Kreigh (aka Dr. Technology), Plugged In has come to dominate the annual Sand Hill Challenge, a soap-box derby in nearby Menlo Park that has become a status symbol for the area's venture capitalists and tech firms. A key to their success, Kreigh notes, is that the Plugged In team actually field tests its design. Kreigh's comments epitomize the message of the film: "You can't get it done just knowing how to do things with your head and not knowing how to do thing with your hands."
Snitow and Kaufman, whose backgrounds are in broadcast news and documentary production, may have wanted to expose the seamy underbelly of the new economy. But by expanding their view, they have created something at once more honest and more interesting.
