Tuong Vi Long Nguyen’s Let There Be Work (Et le travail fut) is a social, political, and poetic documentary that takes us to a little-known part of contemporary Vietnam.. The film follows the unique experience of Officience, a startup based in Saigon, that is attempting a radically different way of organizing work: no bosses, a horizontal, transparent mode of governance where employees collectively set their own salaries – a supposed utopia in constant tension with both global capitalism’s logic and the Communist principles that the Vietnamese governments claims to uphold (multiple times in this film, banners of Hồ Chí Minh’s slogans are shown with a heavy dose of irony).

The film will remind some cinephiles of documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s style – extremely long takes without cuts, languorous pacing, purely observational footage with no outside commentary or narration, scenes of everyday conversations and meetings, and no central subject for the audience to latch any emotions to. Let There Be Work charts individual paths toward collective organization, and the compromises necessary for this white-collar utopia to stand. It highlights global societal issues through a localized experience – in a Vietnam undergoing rapid Westernization and economic growth. Yet, the film retains a universality in the questions it asks. Let There Be Work is a film that speaks to our times, the modern globalized economy’s effects on Vietnam, professional disillusionment, and the hopes – naïve or optimistic, depending on your perspective – of reinventing work in a capitalist society to benefit all.

By Linda Nguon