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__**FILM ANNOTATION FOR "HUMAN FOOTPRINT"**__

Human Footprint, Clive Maltby, 2008  The main narrative of the film is to take viewers through the life of a typical human being and the amount of resources they consume and waste they produce. In the film, viewers follow a male and female that grow up together and see what resources they use at each stage of their lives. At each phase of their lives together, the film physically displays the types and amount of items they consume including such things as diapers, eggs, milk, et cetera. 3. What sustainability problems does the film draw out? ** This film mostly draws out sustainability problems concerning behavior, culture and the environment. Each year, the world produces 246 million tons of waste which is definitely due in part to our cultural and behavioral patterns. Each person will produce an average of 64 tons of waste in his or her lifetime. We begin to consume vast amounts of resources upon exiting the womb, mainly diapers. In two years, one child will go through an average of 3,796 diapers. However, even though this is a large number, it does not signify all of the resources that do into making the diapers. For instance, to make these diapers, 1,898 pints of crude oil are required, 715 pounds of plastic are processed, 4 ½ trees are cut down for their pulp, and 22,455 gallons of water are consumed. This example alone exemplifies the wasteful behavior and culture that we practice. We look to purchase the most convenient products as opposed to the most environmentally and socially responsible ones. Using reusable diapers as opposed to disposable ones would help to greatly decrease our use of resources and our production of waste. If our culture compelled us to care more about the environmental impact of our actions, we would hopefully reduce our consumption and waste. This is a major sustainability issue because we have a finite amount of natural resources and a limited space to dump them. If we do not reduce our consumption and waste, there will not be enough resources left for future generations and there will be a catastrophic economic decline. With the rate at which we waste materials and products, there are also major sustainability issues concerning the environment. A majority of our waste gets dumped into the ground and all of the harmful toxins get leeched into the soil. This spoils our food supply and water supply. Another environmental sustainability issue is the use of medication and pills. A person will consume an average of 37,320 pills in his or her lifetime. The chemicals in these pills eventually find their way into our water and soil which then gets circulated back to the human population. Some of these pills include hormones which lead to defects in male babies. 4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why? ** I was compelled by the amount of materials that went into making the final product. Generally, I only recognize the waste that is a product of our possessions. It is hard to know how much of our natural resources go just into manufacturing these products. Like I wrote earlier, people dispose of thousands of diapers in their lifetime. However, it is not just the diapers they are wasting, it is also all of the resources such as oil that go into making the diapers. Otherwise, I did not find this film particularly compelling. It actually really frustrated me. 5. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? ** This film did not have an issue convincing me of the problem. I recognize that our current rates of consumption and waste are unsustainable. However, I was hardly compelled by their approach. The entire film displayed supporting facts with physical representations of every statistic. I found it extremely ironic that a film attempting to dissuade people from consuming so much wasted an enormous amount of products just to prove a point. It was actually kind of angering. I would have been perfectly satisfied to have seen a computer model of the same statistics. For instance, to show how many eggs a person will consume in his or her lifetime, they just dump “ALMOST expired” eggs onto the ground. Why did they have to waste perfectly good eggs? Why couldn’t they have donated them to a shelter where they could be used as a food source? It was completely ridiculous. In one of the first scenes, they display all the diapers a kid uses in his or her first two years and it is obvious those are unused diapers. You cannot reuse those once they have been taken out of the packaging and placed on the ground. Shouldn’t the film set an example of what it means to reduce waste and not add to it? They did the same thing for other perishable items such as bread and milk. Another technique that did not compel me to their film was the rapid inundation with statistics. The narrator rattled off so many statistics and so quickly that I could hardly take in what she was saying. Maybe the point was to overwhelm the viewer, but that did not make it a compelling approach. When I watch a film, especially on environmental issues, I like to get a comprehensive understanding of the issue. This film did not even give me the time I needed to write down statistics that intrigued me and would want to look further into. Also, I thought a lot of the statistics were absolutely ridiculous—mostly the ones related to food consumption. Living organisms have to eat in order to survive, that’s just the way it is. The fact that they showed how much food we consume is relatively irrelevant to our sustainability problems concerning consumption and waste. If they wanted to show how consumption related to an unsustainable population, that would be a different story. Simply showing how much we eat is hardly a sustainability issue. 6. What additional information does this film compel you to seek out? Where do you want to dig deeper and what connections do you want to make with other issues, factors, problems, etc.? ** I would like to delve deeper into the specific effects of this waste and more about what resources and energy go into the production of these products. I also would want to learn more about how the statistics around relatively mainstream environmentally-friendly products compare to the statistics offered in the film. 7. What audiences does the film best address? What kind of imagination is fostered in viewers? Do you think the film is likely to change the way viewers think about and act on environmental problems? ** Personally, I would not recommend this film to anyone. If I had to choose an appropriate audience for this film, I might suggest middle school and high school students. This is because they are old enough to not be completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of statistics and what they represent but also because they are young enough that they might be compelled to make lifestyle changes because of it. I think that if this film is used in a classroom setting, it could turn into a class project. Students could record what they use on a daily basis and compile their own statistics. They could also research what resources and how much energy goes into these products. Teachers could also work with students to come up with solutions to this problem. 8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film? ** It did not suggest ANY actions or points of intervention. All it did was show how much we waste. 9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value? ** The film’s environmental educational value could be enhanced by everything I stated in question 6.
 * 1. Title, director and release year? **
 * 2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**
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