“The warehouse is two football fields, or three football fields,” he says. In the doc, he describes his job as a “picker” at an Amazon warehouse, which requires him to pick up items all over the facility for delivery to Amazon customers. They say they took to the road in an RV, and eventually found work with Amazon.Ĭhuck is about 73 at the time of the doc, but gives his age as 71, jokingly explaining that he doesn’t want to be older than that. It features an older couple, Barb and Chuck Stout, who explain that they lost their entire retirement savings in the 2008 financial crisis. It promises that “Medical and prescription coverage available after 90 days,” overtime pay and a 401(k), among other benefits.Īn Amazon spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times the program offers “at least $15 per hour, partial campsite accommodations and hook-ups for their vehicles,” adding, “We see many of these employees return and tell us of their positive experience.”īut the documentary “CamperForce,” directed by Brett Story and written by Bruder, adapting her book, shows the very hard work involved, at least as of the time of its release four years ago. The company’s website advertises opportunities in 24 locations across the nation, as well as benefits like $120 weekly toward campground expenses. Many of them face real-life economic uncertainty as they travel from job to job in vans or RVs.Īnd here’s where Amazon comes into the story: The $1.7 trillion company, owned by Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, offers seasonal employment to such real-life nomads through its CamperForce program, which targets workers who live at least part of the year in mobile homes.

They hold their own in scenes with McDormand, an Oscar winner playing a woman on the brink of poverty. There are many real-life Ferns, and Nomadland introduces a few of them, enlisting these actual nomads to play characters who are very similar to themselves. One of her first jobs is at an Amazon warehouse. She travels by van from one short-term job to another. Zhao’s film is focused largely on the personal journey of Fern (Frances McDormand), who hits the open road after the death of her husband - and her town’s entire economy. It came out in 2017, three years before Zhao’s film, but was based on the same book, Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. The short documentary “CamperForce” shares many of the strengths of Nomadland, without that perceived weakness.

It has also received criticism from people who wish it was tougher on Amazon, a corporate behemoth that appears prominently early in the film. Nomadland, the Oscar frontrunner directed by Chloé Zhao, has earned wide praise for its inclusion of real life nomads who travel the West in vans and RVs.

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