The Movement of People Working, by minimalist composer, film maker and photographer Phill Niblock portrays human labor in its most elementary form. According to Niblock, "It is the combination of his slowly evolving harmonic music that creates an otherworldly masterpiece. The films and the music combine elements that seem contradictory, creating tension as a result. Impersonal motion patterns filmed in vibrant 1970s Kodachrome move side by side with glorious sounds that are caused by an acoustic phenomenon. However, there are striking parallels between the image and sound as well, not because one was made as a companion to the other, but because of correspondences at a deeper level. Both display movements within a larger frame that changes at an exceedingly slow rate, evoking simultaneous sensations of movement and immobility. Both transcend the strictly personal, thereby acquiring extra import. In juxtaposition they can bring about a curiously alert trance-like condition, in which associations have free rein."

Phill Niblock (USA), born 1933, has become known not only for his music but for the experimental documentary films that usually also form part of any Niblock live performance. Niblock's films portray human labor in its most basic manifestations, such as construction work, harvesting, planting and fishing. Niblock’s narrative style emphasizes continually repeated movements, while his subjects’ faces are always absent. In Niblock’s music – composed for traditional instruments, either solo, or in trios and quartets – acoustic conditions are crucial. What listeners hear depends on the space where it is being played, on the exact spot where the listener is positioned (or the way they move around in its sounds), on the quality of the sound system, the volume at which the music plays, the position of the loudspeakers and, on the placement or movement of a musician in live presentations and the notes the musician chooses to play. Since 1971, Niblock has been the Professor of Video and Film Production and Photography, Department of Performing and Creative Arts at the College of Staten Island, at the City University of New York.