Richards is credited as the film’s production designer as well cinematographer. O bviously, you can find politics in anything.”Īlso Read: Chloe Zhao Becomes First Woman Awarded Director of the Year at Palm Springs Film Awards We also show a Ford Econoline as well, but I don’t think we’re making a big critical statement about Ford. “I mean, we simply show Fern working there.

“ It’s a weird argument to say that the movie is making a big critical statement,” Richards said. The presentation of Amazon in the film is matter-of-fact, neither a celebration nor a condemnation of the retail giant. I think they knew it wasn’t a film about them. “T hey had read the book and they pretty much knew what we were doing with the film.

“T hey were totally accommodating, and Fran did real work, taping up boxes while we were there,” Richards explained. The film’s story begins as Fern is arriving at a seasonal job through Amazon’s CamperForce, a program that connects RV campers and nomadic travelers with job opportunities at the company’s warehouses. Those include Linda May, the driving force of Bruder’s book, who meets McDormand’s Fern while working at an Amazon fulfillment center. The film, based on Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” chronicles the unrooted lifestyle of various people, several of whom play themselves in the movie. “It’s great that we show Fern working in an actual Amazon packaging place.”Īs the film has been screened at numerous film festivals since September (it won the top prize at Venice, among other accolades), McDormand revealed that she indeed wrote to Amazon’s senior VP of business and corporate development Jeff Blackburn, explaining the story that director Chloé Zhao (the director of 2017’s sleeper hit “The Rider”) was planning to tell.Īlso Read: 'Nomadland' Film Review: Frances McDormand Hits the Road in Quiet, Lyrical DramaĪ shot inside the Amazon warehouse in “Nomadland” (Searchlight Pictures) “Fran wrote a nice letter to Amazon to ask them if we could do it, and they said yes,” Richards told TheWrap. And, yes, she takes on a temporary job packaging products on the Amazon assembly line. In the film, the Oscar-winning actress stars as Fern, a widow affected by the great economic collapse of 2008, who travels through the American West in her Ford Econoline van. Cinematographer Joshua James credits the film’s star, Frances McDormand, with landing the online retail giant’s permission to allow his cameras inside. The new film “Nomadland” has been universally praised for its sensitive, authentic portrayal of Americans living in the gig economy, traveling from place to place while working seasonal jobs in factories, farms and even at Amazon fulfillment centers.Īnd Amazon has a small supporting role, playing itself, in the movie.

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