Trailer for ‘American Sweatshop’ Thriller About a Content Moderator
by Alex Billington
July 31, 2025
Source: YouTube
“Sometimes the only way to stop a bad thing is with another bad thing.” Brainstorm Media has unveiled the official trailer for an indie film titled American Sweatshop, a modern thriller about social media and how harmful it actually is. A social media moderator is tasked with purging the most offensive content from the internet. When she sees a video that appears to show a crime, she’s lured into a dangerous world as she obsessively looks to hold them accountable. This is definitely commentary about Facebook, which also used to have a human moderator team, showing how they’re so afraid of ever doing anything to stop actual crime and danger. A look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Daisy Moriarty. This is also similar to the Canadian thriller Red Rooms from last year. The film stars Lili Reinhart, Daniela Melchior, Jeremy Ang Jones, Josh Whitehouse, Tim Plester, Christiane Paul,, and Joel Fry. After premiering at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival earlier in the year, it’s set to open in limited theaters this September. This looks intense! But also an important topic in this day & age. “Remember: we’re not ‘censors’, we are ‘moderators.'”
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Uta Briesewitz’s film American Sweatshop, from YouTube:
A look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Daisy Moriarty, who while dealing with a chaotic personal life, finds herself sucked into the underbelly of the internet. A social media moderator Daisy (Lili Reinhart) is tasked with purging the most offensive content from the internet. When she finds a video she believes to contain a crime, she’s lured away from the safety of her keyboard and into a dangerous world as she obsessively seeks to hold someone accountable. American Sweatshop is directed by the German TV director / filmmaker Uta Briesewitz, making her feature directorial debut with this film, after directing many episodes of TV for series “Jessica Jones”, “Altered Carbon”, “The Wheel of Time”, “Stranger Things”, “Fellow Travelers”, “The Wire”, “Black Mirror”, “Severance”. The screenplay is written by Matthew Nemeth. Produced by Anita Elsani, Uta Briesewitz, Jason Sosnoff, Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana. This first premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year. Brainstorm Media will debut Briesewitz’s American Sweatshop in select US theaters starting September 19th, 2025 this fall. Anyone interested in watching?