This movie is showing next week online, hosted by the Adelaide Sustainability Centre.
Here’s what the ASC says about the event:
Let’s watch a film together, from home.
Join our ‘The Story of Plastic’ virtual screening and panel discussion.In these unprecedented times, we’ve found a virtual solution to continue our monthly film nights. Stories and film have a unique ability to bring us together as part of something bigger than ourselves and connect us during perilous times.
The Story of Plastics takes a sweeping look at the human-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people who inhabit it.
When: Tues 5 May
Movie: 6:45 pm Adelaide time (7:15pm Sydney time)
Online discussion (via Zoom): 830pm Adelaide time (9pm Sydney time)
Register online: (limited tickets)
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/virtual-film-night-panel-discussion-the-story-of-plastic-tickets-103111398970?aff=erelexpmlt
Update — This was an excellent film. One of the take home messages of the movie was the idea of holding the large plastic-producing corporations accountable, rather than we as consumers pointing the finger at ourselves as culprits for the plastic crisis.
Consumers in many countries don’t have the facilities for processing single-use plastic waste, and the movie showed corporate marketing people “generously” offering money for waste management in Asia. But this was a smokescreen, a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of new plastics that those same companies were producing and shipping to Asia. So, diverting attention away from the production end of the supply chain, to the consumption end = scapegoating consumers.
The other thing that struck me was this — we have seen a mass movement on climate action, trying to get governments to take responsibility for emissions.
But on plastics, we don’t seem to have mass community actions. We as “consumers” tend to angst about our actions as individuals rather than seeing plastic as a bigger systemic problem created by large corporations.
I enjoyed the slow and gentle pace of the documentary – it didn’t go for the shock and awe approach, and gave you plenty of time to absorb each new story of plastic from different parts of the globe.