Educational Media Reviews Online

This crowdfunded work launches with scorn not only for the lifestyle of opulence, but for the dependence and obsession with economic and personal financial growth. Although the film makers hold out a modicum of hope for increase efficiency of production and Promethean technological discoveries, the film is comprised mostly of a diatribe against capitalism. Through interviews with pundits and philosophers, the film propounds the world’s depletion of resources, leading to the end of growth. The audience is warned of a spiral of consumption leading to disaster, unless people individually and collectively alter their minds and behaviors to consume less. The last third of the film is accentuated in focus with a rhetorical question and answer format. Here, the work delivers closure with a three point strategy to promote degrowth: voluntary simplicity, collective transition experiments, and political action.

This work has a heartfelt message and offers many stimulating animations, but suffers greatly from repetitiveness and frequent vagueness. The value of the film may be found in its final third with concise pacing, organized thought processes, and down-to-earth proposals.