It’s ironic that a brand selling clothes, gear, and apparel would produce a film about why consumerism is ruining the planet. But that’s not unusual for the brand Patagonia. Its latest feature documentary, The Shitthropocene, takes a satirical and brutally honest look at our culture of “stuff” and the problems it has created.
“You might have noticed that a lot of things seem to suck right now,” the logline of The Shitthropocene reads. “This film isn’t about all the things that suck — that would be a really, really long film. But it is about consumption, which is both a cause and a symptom of the suckiness.”
Directed by award-winning filmmaker David Byars, this irreverent documentary takes one of the most complicated and headache-inducing topics and makes it digestible and, at times, even funny. How did we go from hunter-gatherers living in caves to becoming consumerist worker bees poisoning our hive?
The Shitthropocene uses dancing cave people and thoughtful storytelling to paint the picture.
This film doesn’t just cover the problems consumerism is causing, either (pollution, waste, and resource depletion, to name a few). The Shitthropocene is also a film about solutions. It looks at what could possibly be done to fix this and mitigate the problems, impacts, and consequences for ourselves and our planet at large.
“This is perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had making a film,” said Byars on Instagram.
For more information about the film and to host a screening, visit Patagonia’s webpage for The Shitthropocene.
Runtime: 46:13
