Educational Media Reviews Online

This feature-length documentary provides a scathing portrait of the unchecked exploits of the global “fast fashion” industry, which pumps out high volumes of cheap clothing at enormous human and environmental expense. Director Andrew Morgan, who also narrates the film, pursues the question of how clothing is made today through a worldwide tour that jumps between first and third-world locations. The film introduces us to hidden realities that make the mass production of clothing possible: the exploitative working conditions and wages of over 40 million garment workers (a largely female force); the industrialization of agriculture and its toxic effects on human health and the environment; the cooperation and coercion of poor third-world governments to satisfy big business; and the propaganda of consumerism.

Confronted with visceral footage of human suffering - deaths caused by factory collapse and fires in Bangladesh, children suffering from toxic chemicals in cotton and leather production, protesters for minimum wages fired upon by the Cambodian government - the world’s shared responsibility is undeniable and unforgettable. The True Cost is an important film for all consumers, and should be required viewing for those entering the fashion industry (or really, any industry that sources and moves goods globally). In taking on an issue of such scale, there are some missing pieces (such as testimony from the clothing companies themselves), but the film serves as an excellent introduction to the complexities and inequalities of global consumerism.