Educational Media Reviews Online

Monobloc weaves together several stories related to an unlikely theme. As the director of Monobloc explains, the creation of a good documentary entails finding the perfect topic and watching the story evolve. This documentarian points out that nobody will look at a plastic chair and exclaim, “this will make for a great film.” However, Wendler did just that, and the result is surprising. Referred to by many as the world’s bestselling piece of furniture, this ubiquitous object and the people sitting in it are the subjects of a fascinating story. Traveling to locations including Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Uganda, and the United States, Wendler shows just how polarizing the topic of the monobloc chair is. Viewers can see them used across the world in a series of shots introducing the film. They are used outside food stands, markets, upscale restaurants, and homes in Europe, Africa, and South America. However, many have strong negative opinions about this piece of furniture.

What is the “monobloc”? The chair, formed from polypropylene, earned its name due to it being one, single piece. According to rumors by the narrator, there are reportedly more than one billion of these affordable chairs in existence. The journey to discover the origin of the chair officially begins in Northern Italy, where three brothers founded one of the first plastic chair factories. As Camillo Proserpio details, the facility opened in 1959 and shifted to working with plastic in 1965. The brothers are adamant they only had good luck and are grateful to the “Frenchman” that invented the product but failed to patent it.

During a lull in the film’s production, the filmmaker had his own good fortune, when he was contacted by a “German Monobloc enthusiast” that shared video shot fifteen years earlier in France. The footage introduces us to Henry Massonnet, the inventor of the monobloc. Massonnet proudly leads a tour of his museum where various designs of the plastic chairs on display, including the first one hiding in the back. The narrator laments the fact that up until three years ago, Massonnet’s role in the creation of the chair was lost to history.

The focus shifted back to Massonnet when his monobloc was highlighted at an exhibit in the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. Speaking to curators and staff of the museum, it is clear they think this chair is important in the history of furniture design and decide to add it to their upcoming atlas of furniture design. A discussion of where it should be placed within the book ensues. The curator of the museum points out Massonnet wanted to create a “lifestyle object” and used better quality materials than those used for plastic chairs today. The current monobloc is a result of cutting costs so severely the manufacturers begin literally cutting holes and patterns into the chairs to reduce the volume of material used. Ultimately, they decide to put the Massonnet Monobloc in an “evolutionary sequence” amongst other furniture pieces.

Not everybody in Europe looks at this chair favorably. The filmmakers go into the public in Germany, asking for feedback about the chair. Interviewees are concerned about the use of plastic and are shocked the chair remains in production. They have terrible memories about breaking these chairs, they don’t find them comfortable, and they shudder to think about where they go when we are done using them. According to one person interviewed, these do not break down and just take up space in landfills.

Outside of Europe, though, people have a drastically different view of the chair. To many people, the monobloc plays a role in a story about innovation and using what we can to help those in need. The filmmakers travel to Uganda to meet a grandmother suffering from paralysis of her legs. She cannot afford a wheelchair, so she drags herself around or relies on her family members to carry her. Annet Nnabulime can’t walk or work, and her daughter describes how the family suffers because her “house and field are in poor condition.” However, Annet Nnabulime will soon gain some independence thanks to the Father’s Heart Mobility Ministry and the Free Wheelchair Mission. Francis Mugwanya, founder and director of Father’s Heart Mobility Ministry, estimates that 1 million people in Uganda need wheelchairs. The average Ugandan lives on $1.00 a day, so saving up for a wheelchair is unrealistic. How does the Ministry manage the high costs of wheelchairs while providing help for as many people as possible? By creating a wheelchair that incorporates a plastic monobloc chair as the seat. In California, United States, Don Schoendorfer, founder of the Free Wheelchair Mission, is a successful biomedical engineer. Schoendorfer created the monobloc wheelchair to reduce costs so more people in the developing world could gain mobility. He is proud of what he has created with a $4 chair and shares stories of the lives impacted by this affordable yet durable device. The Free Wheelchair Mission has given away more than 1.1 million wheelchairs, an unattainable amount if the devices were produced without the monobloc modification.

This film tells another story. One of two different worlds. In this world, beyond the African continent, people embrace this cheap plastic chair. It is an option for those that cannot afford more expensive furniture, and it has a surprisingly usefulness for providing quick access to wheelchairs. In India, where factories are producing more of this furniture, owners of small family-run businesses are happy to share a plastic chair with their customers so they can be comfortable. In Brazil, where a former housekeeper earns a living picking up trash, the monobloc chair is seen as valuable because it earns a high dollar amount for recycling. On a quest to determine if the European that stated monobloc chairs are an “ecological disaster” and cannot be recycled is correct, the filmmakers follow the path of those recycled plastic chairs. They are chopped, washed, ground down, washed again, and dried. The granulated plastic pieces are picked up by a company called Indústria Brasileira de Artefatos Plásticos (IBAP) and used in the production of new plastic chairs.

A plastic chair may seem like an unlikely premise for a good documentary, yet the film unfolds to tell interconnecting stories about patents, design, sustainability, and culture. Most importantly, it demonstrates how different people across the globe view and use the same products.

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