Affluenza

"Shop, spend money; what else matters?" That's the worldview of one mall shopper, and you have to wonder how many otherwise sane people the filmmakers had to wade through until they were rewarded with this too-perfect audio bauble. With the exception of a few forced bits like this (the idea that Americans consume too much requires little exaggeration), John de Graaf and Vivia Boe's Affluenza, hosted by NPR's Scott Simon, is a powerful look at the environmental, social, and personal (both emotional and physical) costs of rampant consumerism. From glimpses of co-opted educational units where children learn the history of Tootsie rolls--excuse me?--to the rise in consumer credit counseling agencies which are handling record numbers of personal bankruptcies, this hard-hitting documentary points fingers right, left and, most importantly, straight towards us. In one of the most telling segments of the program, a member of Focus on the Family talks about the fractured family (Mom watching TV, Dad on the Internet, Junior playing Mario) which has emerged in the wake of what singer Tracy Chapman so accurately called our pursuit of "mountains of things." Not only do families suffer, individuals suffer as the chronic stress from walking the endless Jones' treadmill takes its physical toll. But Affluenza is not all doom and gloom: viewers will see plenty of examples of people working toward voluntary simplicity as well as combating the relentless commercial imagery to which people are daily subjected. An excellent wake-up call. Highly recommended. (Note: a home video version of this program is also being sold and advertised on Bullfrog Film's website [www.bullfrogfilms.com] for $29.95.) Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)