Body Job is a short documentary film I made in 2008. It’s a meditation on inspired physicality in the workplace. The film highlights three people–a scientist, farmer, and preacher–who all bring an extraordinary physical approach to their jobs, transforming sedentary work into active expression. Exploring how three people bring conscious movement to their work lives, Body Job is effective in re-framing the way office workers, their employees, and workers in general imagine the workplace and their physical presence in it.
Dr. James Levine of the Mayo clinic touts his revolutionary Treadmill desk and “walk and talk” meetings; Organic Farmer Bill Kazokas demonstrates good tool ergonomics; and Dr. James Forbes powerfully articulates what it means to bring physical awareness to his pulpit.
Coming from a dance background, I bring a love of movement to my film/video work. My mission is to inspire ordinary people to find physical expression in their daily lives. Because Americans spend the great majority of their time at work, they need greater resources for physical activity and vitality on the job. Ideally, we can find ways to integrate physical activity into our work context—which increases productivity and job satisfaction–rather than “saving” our physical expression for compartmentalized outlets.
Body Job grew out of move it!–a dance TV show for kids I co-created, which was optioned to Disney, then sold to Sesame Workshop in 2003. Move it! was an antidote to sedentary TV-watching, and showed kids that material for dance-making is everywhere. I started to see the world as an incredible source of and stage for movement. Body Job allows the viewer to see the world from a movement perspective, and take inspiration from that point of view. Body Job’s point of view has since evolved into a digital platform…the very one you are surfing through now: The Kineticist
Directed and Produced by: Joanne Nerenberg
Edited by Linda Hattendorf: The Cats of Mirikitani
Original Score by Steve Horowitz, Supersize Me
Co-Produced by: Dempsey Rice