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The Story of Stuff

December 19, 2007 by Andrea Bellamy 3 Comments

Have you seen The Story of Stuff yet? You can watch a teaser below, but I urge you to watch the full version here. 

What is it, you ask? It’s a 20-minute film that’s a provocative look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns; about “all our stuff–where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.”

If that sounds boring, it’s not. It’s really well-done, easy to understand, and in many places, eye-opening. Yes, it’s 20 minutes long – short for a film, but long to watch off the side of your desk – but I got so absorbed I wasn’t even tempted to shut it down. If you are, you can navigate through it so you don’t watch the whole thing. Or watch it on your lunch break.

It’s narrarated by Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats: 

Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” — and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today. 

I try to practice sustainable principles in my daily life, but consuming less is a constant struggle for me. Hell, I have a category called “Retail Therapy”! The Story of Stuff is a great reminder that consuming comes with a cost beyond the check-out till.

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Filed Under: Green Gardening & Living, Inspiration Tagged With: Annie Leonard, consumerism, consumption, green, story of stuff

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. george says

    December 20, 2007 at 4:29 pm

    Do I have to drink every time she says TOXIC?

    To me, the whole movie sounds unthoughtful and oversimplified.

  2. Andrea Bellamy says

    December 22, 2007 at 6:16 pm

    Ha ha. George – you’d be quite drunk. Yes, it’s a very simplified telling of the production cycle – but I think that’s what a lot of people need. It could be understood by kids, even. So, oversimplified, sure, but I don’t think it’s unthoughtful.

  3. sam says

    February 27, 2008 at 8:21 am

    I actually quite liked this little film. It gave me some great ideas for a project I’m doing
    plus it was fun and not boring and had some great facts. She might have used a little too many because I couldn’t get all of them down and she had too many ideas whirling around at once.

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