Free Range Studios has done it again, this time by teaming up with sustainability and environmental health expert Annie Leonard to produce The Story of Stuff, a twenty-minute film documenting the reality behind the "materials economy." From resource exploitation and environmental degradation to planned and perceived obsolescence, we're not running the materials economy -- it's running us.
This video is really something -- full of facts and concepts, many of which you'll already know, put together in such a way that it's both a revelation and easy to grasp. The website is full of resources, and there's even a handy list of ten recommendations for another way of doing things.
I'm sharing this video with friends online, but with my friends (and I'm sure you'll identify), it's kind of preaching to the choir. What I'm really excited about is talking my 17 year old sister into hosting a screening for her friends, who are already so much a part of the consumer culture that they work long hours outside of school so that they can buy more stuff. There starting 'em younger and younger these days. . .