Laura Checkoway’s ‘Alt Shift Life’ Offers a Perspective of Hope for Modern Realities

‘Alt Shift Life’ was directed by Laura Checkoway and produced by Tribeca Studios and Lief in partnership with ServiceNow.

Weaving together stories from India, rural Tennessee, and the Bronx, Alt Shift Life brings us into the remarkable lives of Sai, Scott, and DeVonn, sharing their real-world struggles and promising futures. The documentary short reveals personal journeys as these stories of resilience and determination unfold through beautifully captured cinematography and storytelling from around the world. The film was written and directed by Academy Award-nominee Laura Checkoway.

Sai is a young woman from a small town in India who moves to bustling Bangalore to pursue a degree in software engineering. Hailing from a community where women are partnered at an early age through an arranged marriage and destined to a life dependent on a spouse, Sai breaks with tradition to follow her dream of independence and equity through education. She misses her family and small village, but finds hope in new friends and excitement over the promise of a better future.

Scott hails from Red Boiling Springs, a town of just over 1000 people, and was raised by loving grandparents. His biological parents had a history of drugs and alcohol and Scott was born with Cerebral Palsy as a result of his mother’s difficult pregnancy. He never imagined that he would have been able to break the cycle of poverty with his disability and background. Thanks to strong mentorship and training, he has become an impactful leader in the IT space, lives in a beautiful home, and is able to give his kids a better life than he and his wife ever could have dreamed of.

DeVonn grew up in the Bronx and Queens with loving, hardworking parents who often had to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. He strived to break the generational cycle of living paycheck to paycheck and having to go without things like hot water and electricity if bills weren’t paid. He was isolated in his tough high school—a self-described nerd, but was always obsessed with computers. He found his gateway into the technology arena and now has endless career opportunities, and the ability to provide for his wife and young daughter at a level that he could never have imagined.

The film was produced by Tribeca Studios and Lief in association with ServiceNow. Documentary subjects Sai, Scott, and DeVonn share their real-world stories of success as alumni of the ServiceNow Rise Up program which is more than halfway through its goal of upskilling 1 million people into a higher-valued career path.

Watch the full film here.