The Phantom of the Operator

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR invites us into a world where science meets fiction -- breathing poetic new meaning into archival films and revealing a little-known chapter in industrial history.

The 20th Century had its invisible workforce: telephone operators. Not merely "voices with a smile", they were shooting stars in a universe of infinite progress. They were test pilots for the management systems of their time.

Caroline Martel takes overlooked artefacts of cinema history -- one hundred industrial, advertising and scientific management films produced in North America between 1903 and 1989 -- and turns them into a dreamlike montage documentary. She also resurrects from the past an arcane electronic musical instrument: the ondes Martenot, adding to the mood set by the voice of award-winning actor Pascale Montpetit.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR sheds light on the corporate, scientific and popular imaginations of the past century to provide a wry yet ethereal portrait of human society in the technocratic age.