Recently I had the opportunity to throw some questions at my former co blogger Pieces who currently writes for streetwear brand Lemar and Dauley’s blog at lemaranddauley.com. Because environmental issues effect us all I like to talk to everyone about it. I asked Pieces to answer a few questions about a movie called Story of Stuff.

This movie has stirred up some controversy because teachers have been showing it to their students. Some call it propaganda. According to their site:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view…

The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. ~storyofstuff.org

Watch the film here and answer these questions for yourself in our comments section.

Did you think it was biased or not factual? There are critiques on the net, do you feel compelled to watch them or cross check her information?

I don’t but of course it’s biased. People don’t put money into making anything unless it is to accomplish a certain goal. I believe this is factual though, although considering that I hadn’t been exposed to much of the information offered beforehand, I have nothing to “fact-check” it against though.

What are your thoughts on her statements about fashion and the types of obsolescence?

It made a lot of sense from the corporation’s standpoint. As an artist I know that the artistic mechanism provides it’s own sense of perceived obsolescence though and so we’re constantly creating new things. I always looked at it from that standpoint but I never really thought about the venture capitalists who facilitate that drive through making businesses of what we would be doing regardless.

The juice packs and the recycling?

Very true. Deviously maniacally true. Although it was not fully explained why the companies that make these things would be adverse to recycling though.

What was your favorite part and least favorite part?

My favorite part had to be the discussion of obsolescence. Followed by the cyclical argument of advertising cause I had just said something similar to myself. Our entire culture worships at the shrine of conspicuous consumption.

Our most popular songs are about indulgence (i.e. Britney Spears “Three”), our ads feature inordinate amounts of the worst kinds of foods, and celebrities have become our philosophers and deities because they are our projections of Plenty. If the entire cultural conversation is about wasting our bodies, our spirits and our selves, then who the hell *would* care about saving a juice box??? It’s so much bigger than that. No “least favorite part” comes to mind.

Was a case for urgent change successfully made to you? Has this movie changed your mind about anything?

That quote about the need for consuming to become a ritual was very moving. The case was made that things need to change but there wasn’t much offered to help an uninformed person understand how to begin.

Did you feel informed and empowered to change at the end or like things would never change?

I don’t feel like things will change because as it was pointed out in the onset of the film, it’s largely the work of governments and corporations and their evil knows no end. I did feel very informed though, but also very helpless because there weren’t many solutions offered and some things just cut off too fast. I live in a building with incinerators for example and would have loved to hear what Dioxin does. But I was still very appreciative for what I did learn ).

What did you learn? Did you feel informed and empowered to change at the end or like things would never change?

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