The Institute for Cinema Studies presents
The world premiere of Who Needs Sleep? showed to a packed and enthusiastic audience at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The lively post-screening discussions made it obvious that people do not want to accept uncivilized working hours.
This warm reception in Park City, Utah was followed by festivals in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Edinburgh, Scotland. Screenings organized by the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild, and the Cinematographer’s Union, have proved the fundamental importance and universality of the sleep and long work hours issue.
Since its premiere in January, from Germany to Australia, people from around the world have been expressing their appreciation for the filmmakers of Who Needs Sleep?, and go out of their way to share their own stories of long hours in the film-making business.
The growing grassroots movement of all working people to reduce excessive hours spent at work became not only a positive feedback, but also a support for the need to bring change.
Ahhh... the glamorous life in Hollywood. Or is it? Film crews routinely work sweatshop hours, often clocking 15 to 18 hour days at the expense of their families, their health, their well-being, and even their lives.
In 1997, after a 19-hour day on the set, assistant cameraman Brent Hershman fell asleep behind the wheel, crashed his car, and died. Deeply disturbed by Hershman's preventable death, filmmaker and multiple-Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler shows how sleep deprivation and long work hours are a lethal combination. WHO NEEDS SLEEP? is a commentary on our quality of life.
A documentary feature from Haskell Wexler, A.S.C.
Who Needs Sleep? has now been seen by thousands of people all over the world and the awareness of the problem of chronic sleep deprivation is recognized by working people in the United States, England, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Russia and many others. The relationship between working excessive long hours and health, quality of life and the very nature of “making a living” is understood more clearly now in part due to “Who Needs Sleep?” documentary.
The DVD for this important documentary is now available for purchase at a reduced price of $ 15.00 (US dollars).
CURRENTLY IN THE NEWS
Hollywood and Harvard Join Forces to Promote Healthier
Work-Life Balance
THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP
Sleep is vital to our health and well being. Yet millions of us are not getting enough sleep, or are suffering from other sleep problems.
Poor sleep has a price. Millions of individuals struggle to stay alert at home, in school, on the job - and on the road. Tragically, fatigue contributes to more than 100,000 police-reported highway crashes, causing 71,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths each year in the United States alone.
Haskell Wexler and the whole team at Who Needs Sleep? and 12On - 12Off has continued to consult with the National Sleep Foundation. The NSF is a really good resource for us all to more fully understand how vital sleep is to sustaining a healthy human existence.
Swine Flu, Sleep Deprivation and Long Hours
If you’re trying to avoid the flu, here’s some interesting news. The immune system is at its strongest while you’re sleeping
- read the National Sleep Foundation ALERT
Recent inquiry into the Buffalo airline crash has revealed that fatigue and chronic sleep deprivation is a systemic problem for the regional airlines, working conditions that put everyone at high risk.
Our working conditions are not so far off those of the regional flight crews: long commutes, long hours, little or no time for normal rest or sleep. We are not flying airplanes but we are on the road in our cars, jeopardizing ourselves and everyone else on the road with us as we get to and from our workplace.
"A National Transportation Safety Board hearing Wednesday in Washington revealed that the pilot and co-pilot of the ill-fated plane were low-paid, had to commute hundreds of miles to work and probably were fatigued as they made the evening flight Feb. 12 from Newark, N.J.
Including the Buffalo accident, 135 people have been killed in five crashes involving regional airlines since 2002. NTSB officials looking into the crashes found pilot fatigue, high turnover rates among pilots and a pattern of sloppiness at the airlines.
Barry Schiff, a Camarillo-based aviation safety consultant and a former airline pilot, said the revelations about the working conditions for the pilots in the Buffalo crash were 'shocking but not surprising.'
Schiff said long hours, little rest and low salaries were endemic for pilots who worked for regional carriers. And despite new attention given to the 'appalling' working conditions, he thinks little will be done."
"The second day of a three-day National Transportation Safety Board hearing Wednesday focused on whether Captain Marvin Renslow and co-pilot Rebecca Shaw were fatigued on the wintry night of Feb. 12 when they apparently made a series of critical errors as Continental Connection Flight 3407 approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
Board member Kitty Higgins said fatigue has been a factor in other crashes and is a major concern for the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration.
'When you put together the commuting patterns, the pay levels, the fact that the crew rooms aren't supposed to be used (for sleeping) but are being used - I think it's a recipe for an accident, and that's what we have here,' Higgins said.
NTSB investigators said 93 of the 137 Colgan pilots who worked out of Newark at the time of the accident were commuting from far away.
The company's crew room at the airport is equipped with couches and a big screen TV. Board members said Shaw frequently slept overnight in the crew room in violation of company policy, joking with other crew members that the room had a couch with her name on it.
Mary Finnegan, Colgan's vice president of administration, said the company permits pilots to live anywhere in the country they wish. She said the company also allows them to remove themselves from flight duty if they are fatigued.
'It is their responsibility to commute in and be fit for duty,' Finnegan said. Colgan officials said overnight sleeping wasn't allowed in the crew room because it was a busy place, making quality rest time difficult. The room's lights were kept on all night."
Recent inquiry into the Buffalo airline crash
