Film review: The Story of Stuff

Note: Hey all, Jenn's SIL Melissa here. Went to a movie...Jenn asked for my two cents, so here it is. Enjoy!

For most of us, a trip to the nearest mall or mega-mart means picking up a quick handful of items at a nice, cheap price. A no-brainer. But after viewing the short film The Story of Stuff, you just might find your brain piping up to remind you of all that goes into (and comes out of) all those things that find their way into your shopping cart and your home.

The film, a 20-minute Web documentary, was screened by Ayer Local, a new community organization in my hometown of Ayer, MA, with an ambitious slate: “to raise awareness of sustainability issues, reduce energy consumption, and promote local food & economy in order to build a resilient community that is sustainable for future generations.” (Thrilled to have them in town!)

Released on the Web in late 2007 (http://www.storyofstuff.com/), The Story of Stuff is narrated by Annie Leonard, “ an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world,” according to her Web site bio. She is also coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, a funder collaborative working for a sustainable and just world.

The Story of Stuff is the current centerpiece of Leonard's mission to spread the word about the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health.

Leonard spiels her spiel in front of an animated backdrop detailing the entire life cycle of, well, stuff, from extraction of resource materials through production, distribution, consumption and ultimately, you guessed it, disposal.

Along the way, she touches on the many problems inherent in this cycle, supporting her arguments with statistics that make viewers sit up and take notice. Among the more illuminating observations:

• The U.S. has five percent of the world's population but consumes 30 percent of the world's resources and creates 30 percent of the world's waste.


• Each person in the United States makes 4 ½ pounds of garbage a day, twice what we each made 30 years ago.


• For every one garbage can of waste you put on the curb, 70 garbage cans of waste were made upstream to make the junk in that one can.

The one I found maybe the most disturbing:

• 99 percent of everything we purchase is disposed of within six months (!).

Cute, clever graphics aside, it's hard to miss the message: this is a recipe for destruction. But as the picture grows grimmer and grimmer throughout the narrative, Leonard ends on the ultimate positive note: “It's not like gravity that we just have to live with. People created this problem, and we are people, too.” Ergo, we can un-create it.

OK: The movie's eye-opening and it's entertaining. And it definitely makes you want to do something. But if you're looking for balance, you probably want to look somewhere else. This film is short, and the problems it details are, well, not. The Story of Stuff is geared to provoke: discussion, action, you name it. It's opinionated, and it pulls no punches.

That said, the message is completely valid: When it comes to stuff, we all need to think beyond our desire for instant gratification and remember that a cheap price may be hiding a far steeper cost for the environment, for natural resources and for communities around the globe.

GLR rating: 4 out of 5 leaves

Note: In case any Ayer townies out there are reading this, The Story of Stuff was the first in Ayer Local's “2nd Friday at the Movies” series, aimed at introducing the new organization to a wider swath of the town and getting some meaningful dialogue underway about how to get some positive changes going in Ayer. Look for more thought- and discussion-provoking films in the coming months.