Call Me Intern

Young, qualified, and jobless: like millions of others we were told by family, friends, career departments and employers that we should work for free as unpaid interns to gain experience and jumpstart our careers.

We saw many of our friends financially barred from these unpaid ‘opportunities’ and others finding themselves abused – year long unpaid stints or mistreatment from their supervisors. Everyone was talking about the issue– but it seemed few were actually doing something about it.

So we armed ourselves: with fancy CVs, cover letters, application forms – as well as a camera and a small blue tent. We would examine the system through gonzo-journalism - by taking on the role of a quiet, happy intern to explore the issue from from the inside.

The idea was simple: David would get an unpaid internship at the UN (a symbol of sorts) and Nath would film his experience.
The tent served as a clear symbol for how an unpaid intern simply cannot afford to pay rent. It provided the perfect visual contrast – a character who, by day, rubs shoulders with the diplomatic elite inside the marble palace of the United Nations and, with no salary to pay rent, returns home to sleep in a tent on Geneva’s lakefront.

Partway through the project, we thought publicly highlighting the precariousness of internships by tipping off a few local journalists about this ‘tent-intern,’ could add an interesting element to David’s journey. The story sparked a global media storm: covered by the The New York Times, Washington Post, and the BBC.

As filmmakers, we found our own lives swept up into the story! After the New York Times interviewed David’s mum back home in New Zealand, we decided to call an end to the experiment and held a press conference to announce his live resignation in front of the United Nations and the world’s media.
We’d managed to make a point, but we hadn’t told the full story. Our action might have created a buzz, but it certainly didn’t reflect the depth of the issue or range of experiences and challenges that interns face. Instead of putting down the camera, we decided to widen the scope and explore the growing movement of other young people across the world who have chosen to take action as well as interviewing academics to find out how and why this new employment trend has developed.
We travelled to Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, New York, Toronto and Washington D.C. to learn more. Through these ‘fact-finding’ missions, we met with dozens of experts, academics, lawyers, activists and interns, piecing together the picture. Most importantly, we were able to meet and build the trust of our other key intern characters – Kyle and Marisa.

We spent a few weeks with each of them, learning their back-stories, exploring their homes and neighbourhoods and hearing their motivations for interning, their experience on the job and what led them to speak out. Each of the characters helps to highlight a different aspect of the internship system and together they represent the breadth of sectors that offer unpaid internships - private, public, and non-profit.

Since our film began we have observed an emerging international movement: The Global Intern Coalition. This alliance of intern rights organisations has already carried out a number of actions which we have covered over the past two years, culminating in the Global Intern Strike. This growing organisation among young people serves as the sharp endnote for the film - an act of ‘millennial solidarity’ - rather than individualism or self-interest as this generation is so often portrayed.

There are a bunch of films about “youth issues,” often patronising in tone and static in approach. There is nothing ‘passive’ about our angle – we set out to provoke.

Our generation knows how big this issue is - this is about their experiences, frustrations and desire for change. Others will gain a better understanding and may build empathy for young people who are just starting their careers - perhaps they’ll treat their younger staff better, perhaps they’ll rethink their ‘millennial’ generalisations, perhaps they’ll make sure their kids are aware of their rights when they take on internships.

Virtually everyone we have spoken to recognizes unpaid internships as one of the biggest, yet least examined issues which young people at the start of their careers are facing. This film is here to change that.