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"Tells it like it is. This
movie should be seen be everyone who believes that the fruits of new
technology should be available to all."
Bob Burnett, retired
VP of Engineering, Cisco Systems. Publisher, In These Times magazine.


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"Secrets of Silicon Valley"
is a shocking exposé of the hidden downsides of the Internet revolution
and also a funny and moving meditation on America's love affair with technology.
Told without narration, the film chronicles a tumultuous year in the lives
of two young activists grappling with rapid social change and the meaning
of globalization on their own doorsteps.
Magda Escobar runs Plugged In, a computer training center in a low income
community just a few miles from the epicenter of high-tech wealth. Silicon
Valley's skyrocketing rents and increasing evictions are driving out the
people she is supposed to serve, but Magda struggles to find Plugged In
a new home and receives unexpected help from President Clinton and Hewlett-Packard.
Raj Jayadev is a temporary worker who confronts the hype of Silicon Valley
by revealing the reality of an unseen and unacknowledged army of immigrant
workers. Hired by the world's largest temporary agency, Manpower, Inc.,
to work in a Hewlett-Packard assembly plant, he is laid off when he organizes
other "temps" to challenge health and safety conditions. But
Raj finds surprising and funny ways to take the controversy to the Internet,
the public and the press.
Throughout the film, high tech CEOs and moguls comment on Magda and Rajs
stories with revealing insights on time, technology, greed, and globalization.
Part "Modern Times," part "Bladerunner," this is the
first and only film to take a critical look at the social impact of the
new millenniums high technology. It will provoke heated discussion
in community groups, high tech forums, unions, and classes in history,
technology, sociology, business, anthropology, economics, ethnic and women's
studies.
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