Grades General
Produced by John de Graaf and Vivia Boe
DVD Purchase $30
US Release Date: 1997
Copyright Date: 1997
Subjects
Awards and Festivals
Best Documentary, National Wilbur Awards
Silver Apple, National Educational Media Network Competition
Honorable Mention, Columbus Int'l Film & Video Festival
Oekomedia
Pretoria International Environmental Film Festival
Wild Spaces Environmental Film Festival, Sydney
The Environmental Film Festival @ Cornell University
For Personal Use Only
Diagnoses the "disease" of materialism and prescribes its antidote, simple living.
 |
"A brilliant job of examining a complex issue from many perspectives, in one totally captivating hour." Ellen Furnari, Director, Center for a New American Dream |
AFFLUENZA is a groundbreaking film that diagnoses a serious social disease - caused by consumerism, commercialism and rampant materialism - that is having a devastating impact on our families, communities, and the environment. We have more stuff, but less time, and our quality of life seems to be deteriorating. By using personal stories, expert commentary, hilarious old film clips, and "uncommercial" breaks to illuminate the nature and extent of the disease, AFFLUENZA has appealed to widely diverse audiences: from freshmen orientation programs to consumer credit counseling, and from religious congregations to marketing classes.
With the help of historians and archival film, AFFLUENZA reveals the forces that have dramatically transformed us from a nation that prized thriftiness - with strong beliefs in "plain living and high thinking" - into the ultimate consumer society.
The program ends with a prescription to cure the disease. A growing number of people are opting out of the consumer chase, and choosing "voluntary simplicity" instead. They are working and shopping less, spending more time with friends and family, volunteering in the communities, and enjoying their lives more.
Reviews
"A brilliant job of examining a complex issue from many perspectives, in one totally captivating hour."
Ellen Furnari, Director, Center for a New American Dream
" - an amazingly effective video vaccine against the deadly epidemic of consumerism and debt now sweeping the globe."
Alan AtKisson, Exec. Dir., Redefining Progress
" - a big hit with the kids - a marvelous teaching tool."
Jane Bell, 6th Grade Teacher, Jones E.S., Mt. Airy, NC
"If every American watched AFFLUENZA our Gross Domestic Happiness would rise in no time."
Peter Barnes, Founder, Working Assets
"The people with whom I watched the film...chuckled throughout, injected a few cries of outrage, and wanted to hang around and talk about it afterward. They wanted a copy to show to their kids, their parents, their class at school, their church group. They not only got the point, they loved the point."
Donella H. Meadows AMICUS JOURNAL
"An i