Behind the Screen

Seven computers per second are produced worldwide. "Behind the Screen" casts a formidable glance behind the facade of the electronics industry. The starting point is Ghana’s rainforest. There, young gold diggers stand up to their knees in mud. They slave away in the tropical heat with shovels and pickaxes. Gold has become a curse for them, as large mining companies have long been taking the valuable land away from them and the rivers have been poisoned by the quicksilver and cyanide used for extraction. The collected gold finds its way to computers’ circuit boards. The price of electronics has been falling for years. In the Czech Republic, workers put together computers; they bear the brunt of global competition in the sector. In a dark alley in Pardubice, Janko explains that he works on the assembly line for a pittance of two to three euros per hour, twelve hours a day, six days a week.