Name: Screening | Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer
Start: 2026-03-19T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Burning Books

Thursday, March 19, 2026, 7 pm at Burning Books (420 Connecticut St, Buffalo, NY 14213)
Free or $10 suggested donation. Limited seating, first-come, first-serve
Learn more here: https://squeaky.org/event/alex-riveras-sleep-dealer/
Sleep Dealer (90 minutes, 2008) is a science-fiction film set on the U.S. / Mexico border that tells the story of Memo Cruz (Luis Fernando Peña), a young man from Mexico who dreams of coming to the United States. However, in this brave new borderland, crossing is impossible, and Memo ‘migrates’ in a new way — over the net. By connecting his body to the net Memo controls a machine that performs his labor in America, sending his pure work without the body of the worker.
A film that has gained a cult following since its release (when it was awarded awards at Sundance, the Gotham Awards, and the Berlin Film Festival), the films ideas on remote labor, unmanned war, and border maintenance remains terrifyingly prescient 18 years later.
"Sleep Dealer is my first feature film. I made it, in part, because I love science fiction. I grew up watching Star Wars, Brazil and Blade Runner. However, at a certain point, I realized that despite the genre’s wild stories and countless special effects, there were some things that were unimaginable – and that maybe there was an opportunity to do something radically new with sci-fi… The paradox of a world connected by technology, but divided by borders, is the central concept of Sleep Dealer. Other present-day realities inspired my futuristic fantasy: violent reality shows like COPS, private military contractors like Blackwater, remote control drones like the Predator Drone, the trend of outsourcing jobs over the web, the impending global water crisis, and the ubiquity of video sharing sites YouTube to name a few. This is a science-fiction with many anchors in today’s reality. Sleep Dealer is my first film. It’s not anything like a Star Wars or a Blade Runner. In many ways it’s a humble film. But it’s also an honest attempt to use science- fiction film to say something new, and something true, about our world today." – Alex Rivera, 2008
This screening is presented as part of the series, Infiltrators: Films on borders and resistance. Support for this program is provided by Teiger Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special thank you to Leo Goldsmith and Paige Sarlin. Special thank you to our co-presenters at Jewish Voice for Peace Buffalo.
Learn more about the series here: https://squeaky.org/event/infiltrators-films-on-borders-and-resistance/