Take Out

Years before directing Tangerine and The Florida Project, Sean Baker co-directed Take Out with producer and filmmaker Shih-ching Tsou. The film offers an intimate and unvarnished look at immigrant labor and survival on the margins of the city.

The story follows a Chinese delivery worker over the course of a single day as he struggles to earn enough money to repay his smuggler. Moving through stairwells, kitchens and unfamiliar apartments, the film captures the constant pressure, exhaustion and vulnerability that define his everyday life.

Shot with a restrained, almost documentary realism, Take Out is marked by its empathy and social awareness. It foreshadows many of the themes that would later define Baker’s work and remains a powerful, understated portrait of invisible labor in contemporary urban America.