The World of Work

Who keeps your town running while you sleep?

The Midnight Gardeners of Mumbai is a 12-minute film that touches on themes of work, family, social class and aspirations. It shows Pravin Bheke and Rajesh Jadhav, two night-shift workers who are part of a vast but largely invisible economy that keeps Mumbai, in India running. We follow the two as they work their way through the city after dark watering small municipal gardens — reflecting on their loves, lives and losses and sharing hopes and dreams for their future.

  1. Watch the documentary by Divya Pathak:

2. Read more about this project from Dvya Pathak, a documentary filmmaker.

3. After watching the documentary answer the following quiz (Rajesh is the first man showing up on the video, Pravin the other one):

Mumbai’s Midnight Gardeners

4. Now watch the documentaries below on different people’s work and lives. Whenever possible click on CC to read the subtitles in English while watching the film.

5. Choose the one that impressed you the most and write a comment on it in the comment area below:

Why did you choose that documentary? Why did it impress you? What messages, emotions or ideas will you take away from this film? Why? What questions would you ask that person?

Is it the American Dream again? 17-year old Billie Eilish is already a star.

How do you face work, pain and suffering?

Doctors swear to preserve life at all cost. How can you become A Death Row Doctor?

A lawyer, a Public Defender that truly believes in the power of justice to protect civil rights.

31 thoughts on “The World of Work

  1. Of all the documentaries, the one I chose was Billie Eilish, because I really like her music. I find it impressive that she so quickly and so young has achieved all the recognition she has today.
    I learned from this documentary that we must always believe in our dreams and fight for them to become reality because only if we try we will know if it works.
    If I could ask Billie Eilish a few questions, it would be what it is like to deal with so much fame from a young age.

  2. The documentary i chose was modern love because, the man had a heart problem or an illness and that made him lose if everything he had and was abandoned by the woman and is taken as a person with a disease in the middle of the population .

  3. The documentary that most impressed me was that of a public defender, because this man believes with all his strength in what he does and wants his country to be the same for everyone in a country that, despite the supposed freedom and the American dream, is racist and prejudiced society. Seeing the commitment and strength of character of this public defender today and in the society in which he is inserted is worthy of recognition and epic, as it is easier to go there. There are people like that who make a difference in a world where individuality reigns, where it is easier to go on the opposite walk, it is really inspiring, if we were all like that the world would be a better place, with equality for all.

  4. The documentary I chose was “Death Row Doctor” because I never heard of that profession and I was interested in seeing a new profession that I never heard of. And in this documentary I found the profession interesting.

  5. I choose the billie Eilish documentary because I love her songs.
    I think it´s interesting know how she started her career and she thinks about the music, incorporating her daily routine into her songs. For examples the sounds of orthodontics medicine.
    It´s also cool to know how and why she made this music like that (putting many questions that she really had).
    If I was interviewing her, I would ask how she feels about being so famous, because I think she never expected that from her music and for her life.

  6. I choose Death Row Doctor because I never heard about it and I’m interested in knowing new things, and because he’s executor and I think that’s an interesting profession to know about.

  7. The documentary I chose was Modern Love|Broken Heart Doctor, because, he ended a 12 year relationship and although he is down, he still helps the people who needed him most, the fact that he is able to help them. I am more moved when children appear in chemotherapy sessions and he himself with that emptiness inside him can help the children smile.
    I would ask “How does it feel to help people, even if it’s not a good day?”

  8. The documentary that I choose was Billie eilish because I really love music and with this I understand that Anything is possible if we believe and never give up our dreams, I really admire the way she has achieved all the fame she has today. Only with the help of the brother, It’s amazing how only a production of two people made it this far, and the question I would ask her was “how can you deal with so much fame and so much pressure at the age of 17?”

  9. The documentary I chose was Modern Love|Broken Heart Doctor, because, as it says in the name, it talks about a doctor who ended a 12-year relationship, which left him with a big empty space in his heart. The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that, even though he was down, he kept helping the people who needed him the most, the fact that he was able to help them. I can’t explain the emotion he gave me, the film, but the moment the children appeared happy, with smiles on their faces… it made me feel good, I don’t know.
    The question I would ask that person would be “How does it feel to know that you’ve helped a lot of people, even though you’re going through a rough time in life?”

  10. The documentary I chose was “Death Row Doctor” because, I had never heard of this profession, I was curious. The man who has the profession of executor says that he is not a defender of the death penalty because it is expensive and has no need. There was a part of the interview where he wondered if he liked the man who was to be executed. be someone like him, the doctor replied that “yes”, he wanted someone like him to have the executioner’s place if he had done something horrible that ended up on death row, in this argument, we can see that the man is fair to everyone, no matter who the person was. If I could ask the doctor a question, I would like to ask how he feels when he executes a person.

  11. Of all the documentaries, what I liked the most was Billie Eilish’s because her music inspires me a lot and also because she’s very talented.
    The fact that she’s so young, has such a busy life for her age and the creativity she has is one of the things that impresses me most about her.
    The message I got from this documentary was that it doesn’t matter if our dreams are ridiculous or not, what matters is that we fight for it, if we have a “crazy” idea we have to take a chance regardless of the outcome because that’s the only way we can know if it will work or not. And that’s what Billie ends up telling us, after all she was at the dentist and recorded the noise of the treatment she was doing to her teeth and put in her music.
    If I could ask Billie Eilish a few questions, the first question I would ask her would be how can she reconcile school and music? The second would be did she ever think that she would have so many people loving her work? And third would be what life is like for someone as famous as her.

  12. I chose Billie Eilish’s documentary because I am a big fan of her as a person and as a singer. Her songs give me a good vibe and I really like it. With her I realized that it is not the school that defines what we will be in the future, but our true dreams and goals. She never gave up on her dreams and today at the age of 17 she does something she really likes, which is rare these days.
    If I had the opportunity to speak to Billie, I would ask her if she ever thought of getting where she is today, and how is it to know that so many people like her.

  13. I chose the last video because it talks about a man who was arrested several times by the police unjustly and who wanted to be a lawyer to help innocent people. I also chose this video because it talks about the law and I want to belong to the statute of the law. This man also says that despite the millions of cases he has each year, he loves his job and his clients. I think that justice should not be done only by lawyers, but also by the police themselves, often the police arrest people for the origin that defines them while the real culprits are on the loose! I think this video shows what reality is like and what needs to be changed to be better than that in the future!

  14. The documentary I chose and which I found very interesting was the second in the “Broken Heart Doctor” because despite the pain that the doctor felt for having left a long relationship that left him shattered he saw that he was among people with problems that were much worse than his, these people had diseases.
    It is amazing how the children helped him to feel happier just with smiles.
    this video shows us how often we are surrounded by so many good things and we continue to see only those that make us sad.

  15. I chose the “Dealth Row Doctor” documentary, because it address a heart touching topic. It impressed me because the interviewee has an important role in the execution, but he DON’T AGREES with it! I think a useful message that we can take away from video is that in our future job can will have some tasks that we consider negatives or impropes. I would ask the doctor why he don’t change of medical occupation area since he considers the execution something so negative and poor.

  16. The documentary that impressed me the most was the second, because, if we look good, all doctors have a normal life, like all of us … they have the possibility of having the same problems as us, the same duties … everything, they are the same as us, but only with a big difference. They are very brave … not only now because of covid-19, but all kinds of contagious diseases can infect doctors in the same way that their patients are affected doctors can also be, and they are there to cure their patients and stay the best they can.
    I have always admired all the doctors in Portugal and other countries just because of the effort they make for the patient to flush from the disease or even not to die … it is one of the professions that we all must have a lot of consideration for everything. they do for all of us !!

  17. O documentário que eu mais gostei foi o primeiro da Billie Eilish porque eu gosto bastante de musica e conheço algumas musicas dela .
    E é preciso ter um grande talento e uma grande responsabilidade e os pés bem assentes na terra porque há muitas pessoas que foram reconhecidas bastante cedo e deixaram se levar pela fama e hoje em dia não são nada na vida ao contrario dela que se focou bastante nos seus objectivos

  18. Eu escolhi este documentário da Billie Eilish, porque fiquei espantada com 17 anos de idade e já ter a carreira que tem e a vida que leva, fico surpreendida porque muitos dos adolescentes que estudam, tiram o curso e também entram na faculdade. E para ela ter a carreira que tem teve que se esforçar muito para conseguir chegar onde hoje esta com tanta fama.
    Imagino como é lidar com tantos fãs em volta dela !

  19. I chose the last documentary “True Believers in Justice”, because perform that profession, within the area of justice, it’s complicated, it’s complex, because it is deciding how the person will live in the coming years, what his conditions will be. It’s about her feelings, everything she’s feeling, all the anguish, the sadness, maybe the distance from the family.
    It impresses me, because he is doing what he can and what is in his power to help that person. A person he probably never saw in his life, but he puts his strength to help her, and does his best to have a better future. And what touches me most is the fact that he tattooed the name of every case he loses on his back.
    The biggest message that I get from this video, is that I must persist for a purpose, or something important and that I want, being done by me, or by someone else, because he probably doesn’t know them, but he helps them even so.
    I would ask him why he chose this job and for what reason she tattoos the name of each lost case on his back, because we ended up thinking and guessing the reason why he does this, but we are not sure why.

  20. The decumentary that I liked the most was that of Billie Eilish because I love her songs, she also has the style of music of the singers that I like but that unfortunately died,
    I find her a very humble and fun person and admire her a lot because she is 17 years old and already has the talent and recognition that she deserves because she is a great person.

  21. I chose Billie Eilish’s documentary because her songs are wonderful and when I hear her singing I shiver, I really admire her being something from “another world”.
    What impressed me the most was the fact that she has a great talent at 17, because at her age we don’t see many teenagers like that.
    Looking at this documentary I see something out of the ordinary, teenagers aged 17 worry about graduating every year from school and having a profession, which is normal, but not Billie! She left school and paid more attention to her talent that she has since she was “little”, from here I got a message, sometimes school is not the future for some teenagers, sometimes the future for those teenagers is the talent they discover outside school.
    I would ask Billie two questions, the first would be, what is it like to deal at 17 with so many people because of your talent? And the second would be, if she ever imagined reaching this “threshold”.

  22. The video I liked the most was the second one, because it is a video that leaves a lot of people thinking and now in the case of the pandemic it is a video with enormous significance due to the fact that we are asked to stay at home and doctors and nurses are asked to go to work, to risk their lives if necessary to save “ours”. Honestly it was a video that touched me a lot.

  23. The documentary I chose was “Modern Love | Broken Heart Doctor” because it tells us a story about a man who ended his 12-year relationship during a new stage in his work life. This breakup caused a huge emptiness in his heart and made him not feel like working.
    What impressed me the most were the children around him with serious problems who still happy playing in the hospital, even with all the suffering caused by these diseases. He recognized that even though he was unhappy, there were those people who were worse.
    The most important message that I will take away from this film is that it’s okay to be a human. Why? Because we are not perfect and if we feel sad or something like that, it’s okay to cry.
    One question that I would like to ask him, is how does it feel to comfort people who are also suffering?

  24. I chose this film because it talks about Justice, which is such an important word in society, but as my parents say, it has different meanings depending on the size of the wallet of the person being judged. In some cases we have to add “in” before the “j” either because innocent people are convicted of not being able to pay for their defense or because guilty are released because their wallets are “full of power”.
    I think it’s important that there are people like Travis who help people who couldn’t defend themselves. Obviously not everyone is innocent, but helping those who deserve it and cannot, is of value.

  25. Of all the documentaries, what I liked the most was the second because despite being a short video, it shows a lot about the doctors’ daily lives, that they are also human, that they also have problems, diseases, … And above all they really care about their patients.
    This documentary really moved me, because it shows what I always wanted to know about the lives of doctors, is their life like ours? Yes, it is, maybe even more intense, because they see every day many people that are sick and in pain and that is not easy at all!
    If I could ask the documentary doctor anything, I would ask if he remembers all or at least almost all the patients he treated in his career. I think he would answer no, because it is thousands of people, but I would still like to know what his answer would be.

  26. The documentary that impressed me the most was about the lawyer, because I really think advocacy, or any other law related work, is fantastic, because we have the opportunity to often help an innocent, and even if he is not an innocent we can help him change his way of thinking, and become a better citizen. Or also, what is more common to happen is that we have the opportunity to get dangerous and bad people off the street.
    The message I took from this documentary is that you have to have faith and fight for your dreams, because this man always wanted to be a lawyer but he always got in bad ways and used to get arrested, but from the moment he started to make an effort to follow his dreams, life started to improve for him.
    The question I would ask him is why he tattooed the names of the clients of the cases he lost and how and in what way he has more won cases than lost cases.

  27. The documentary I chose was the one with Billie Eilish because I always liked her songs.
    What impresses me most about Billie Eilish is the fact that she is so famous and so young because comparing her life with the life of a normal person at that age, it is totally different.
    A normal 17 year old person would be thinking about school, college or having their first job, but Billie Eilish has a very high level of thinking and many responsibilities.
    One question I would ask Billie Eilish is: how was the impact of being so famous at 17?

  28. The movie she played the most or that I liked the most is Billie eilish because she is a famous person but I thought she is a simple person and has a good relationship with her brother and I identified in that part because I have two younger sisters and my relationship with them is also good. I thought it was funny that she uses sounds like the sounds at the dentist and her brother screaming to use later in the music.
    I also thought it was funny that her brother said that he thought they could do everything now.

  29. I chose the documentary about Billie Eilish, because she is one of my favorite singers.
    I think what I could get out of this little film is that despite the differences and also because she started singing at an early age, she “fought” a lot and at just 17 years old she has already reached where she arrived!
    I think the question I could ask you is how her parents and friends reacted to her success so quickly.

    1. Escolhe este documentário pois fala de Um advogado, um Defensor Público que realmente acredita no poder da justiça para proteger os direitos civis.
      Apesar dos desafios que ele enfrenta ao longo do seu trajeto e nunca desiste dos seus objetivos.

    2. I chose the documentary true believers in justice because I think it is very important that there are people like Travis and I give a lot of value to people like him because these are the true punishers and not the lawyers we find today that are worth nothing from my point of view they don’t even know the concept of the word justice because they all work for money and this isn’t justice it’s just disgusting because there are innocent people in prison who don’t have the money to pay one of these lawyers today and who end up being wrongly accused and many of them are imprisoned for the rest of their lives while many of the real criminals, especially public figures when they are tried, always end up leaving just for being someone known and with money and that’s not justice anywhere it doesn’t make any sense that is why lawyers cause me revolt and disgust but this unlike those in my opinion is part of justice and really knows the concept of The same word must be everyone like him to have an equality before everyone.

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