2020 MV ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL: THE STORY OF PLASTIC

THE STORY OF PLASTIC takes a sweeping look at the man-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people who inhabit it. Spanning three continents, the film illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, veritable mountains of trash, rivers and seas clogged with waste, and skies choked with the poisonous emissions from plastic production and processing. THE STORY OF PLASTIC features interviews with experts and activists on the front lines of the fight, revealing the disastrous consequences of the flood of plastic smothering ecosystems and poisoning communities around the world, and the global movement that is rising up in response. With engaging original animation, archival industry footage beginning in the 1930s, and first-person accounts of the unfolding emergency, the film distills a complex problem that is increasingly affecting the planet’s and its residents’ well-being.

Zoom Interview with Deia Schlosberg, Director The Story of Plastic

Watch the film online first, then enjoy the Q and A

Deia Schlosberg (Director) made national news in October, 2016, when she was arrested and charged with 45 years’ worth of felonies for filming the #ShutItDown pipeline protest in North Dakota. Deia directed the docuseries Bootstraps as well as The Story of Plastic. Previously, Deia produced Josh Fox’s climate change film, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change (Sundance/HBO). Deia also co-produced Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock (Tribeca/Netflix), and The Reluctant Radical (2018), Lindsey Grayzel’s portrait of one climate activist and his personal struggle with avoiding global catastrophe. Deia also co-directed and produced Cold Love, a look at the 25-plus-year career of explorer Lonnie Dupre’s journeys to the world’s coldest places and the climate change impacts that he’s witnessed first-hand by doing so. Deia earned an MFA in Science & Natural History Filmmaking at Montana State University in Bozeman, where she directed and produced Backyard, which looks at the human cost of fracking. The film won two student Emmys (Best Documentary, Bricker Humanitarian Award) and screened at film festivals around the world, winning several audience choice and special jury awards.

Deia’s background is in environmental education and visual arts, as well as expeditioning, having been awarded a 2009 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award for a two-year, 7800-mile through-hike of the Andes Mountains. She subsequently gave talks around the U.S. on the lessons in sustainable living she learned over the course of her time in the Andes.