ADDICTED TO PLASTIC is a feature-length documentary about solutions to plastic pollution. The point-of-view style documentary encompasses three years of filming in 12 countries on 5 continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions - which include plastic made from plants - will provide viewers with a hopeful perspective about our future with plastic.

Addicted to Plastic Photos

Addicted to Plastic Trailer 1

Addicted to Plastic Trailer 2

Purchase Addicted To Plastic - for educators and industry only

U.S. Distributor for educators and institutions. Bullfrog Films


FILM FESTIVALS

Vancouver International Film Festival – September 25 – October 10, 2008 (www.viff.org)

Planet In Focus, Toronto – October 22-26, 2008 (www.planetinfocus.org)

Amazonas Film Festival, Brazil – November 7-13, 2008 (www.amazonasfilmfestival.com.br)

International Documentary Festival Amsterdam – November 20-30, 2008 (www.idfa.nl)

Princeton Environmental Film Festival, New Jersey – January 2-9, 2009 (http://www.princeton.lib.nj.us/peff/)

T.V. BROADCAST DATES

VRT Belgium – aired July 21st, 2008 (www.vrt.be)

YES/DBS Israel – No air date assigned yet (http://www.yes.co.il/)

Planete Cable France - October 15th, prime time 8:45 pm (www.planete.tm.fr)

Swedish Educational Broadcasting (UR) - 18th of October (www.ur.se)

Channel EBS, Korea – No air date assigned yet (www.ebs.co.kr)

Planete Poland – No air date assigned yet (www.planete.pl)

REVIEWS

#1
"For anyone who's wondered what eventually happens to all the plastic in water bottles, packaging, and hundreds of other everyday uses, the feature-length documentary Addicted to Plastic offers a visually compelling, entertaining, ultimately frightening explanation...Candid interviews, especially a particularly revealing one with a representative of the industry's American Plastics Council, permit viewers to form their own opinions. Connacher's on-screen presence as a curious, energized hipster on a plastic road trip lends immediacy to his narrative and enables him to filter complex information and hypotheses into a manageable form that will provoke viewers without confusing them. All in all, Addicted to Plastic is an absorbing, shocking, only partially reassuring odyssey." Jeffrey L. Meikle, Professor, American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Author, American Plastic: A Cultural History

#2
"Addicted to Plastic was a wake-up call for me as a marine scientist. This film presents the viewers with a grim, realistic look at how the food chain is being affected due to plastic confetti invading nearly every square centimeter on earth. This documentary is a sort of eco-horror movie, detailing how persistent plastics sprinkled throughout the ocean and land carry chemical compounds up the food chain and onto our dinner plates. The word 'bioaccumulation' truly strikes home in a frightening and understandable way after viewing this film. Addicted to Plastic is a sobering must-see and needs to be shown at every educational level globally!" Dr. James M. Cervino, Assistant Professor, Biology and Health Sciences, Pace University, Visiting Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Department of Marine Chemistry

#3
"Addicted to Plastic is a journey of discovery of what happens to the various plastics we use and what we can do about them. The documentary is riveting, disturbing, and even sometimes comforting. Everyone should see this important film." Reah Janise Kauffman, Vice President, Earth Policy Institute

#4
ADDICTED TO PLASTIC! The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle 85 min., Canada, dir. Ian Connacher | Reviewer J H Stape Sat, 4 October at 9.30pm Empire Granville 7 Theatre 2 Sun, 5 October at 4.30pm Empire Granville 7 Theatre 2 Thurs, 9 October at 9.30pm Vancity Theatre Slick, hard-hitting, and even witty, this film with a message begins with a horror story -- the pollution wrought by petrochemical plastics and their worldwide dispersal -- and ends with a slim glimmer of hope in the work of scientists on bio-plastics. And when you see your first bio-degradable cellphone, you know this is, if not quite, round the corner at least in prospect of "the next decade or so" kind.

Brilliantly edited, with a crisp text, and impressively filmed, this is a minor classic of its kind, avoiding easy targets (well, we're all involved, even if you say "Paper" at the local shop) aside from the plastics industry, whose greed of course knows no bounds, but that, so it is predicted, will end up paying like the tobacco industry: in the meantime, of course, birds and fish ingest it, the oceans are becoming a chemical soup, the well-intentioned are conned: recycling makes nary a dent, because the stuff just won't disappear, it comes baaack from the dead even as more and more is created everyday!

Polished and informative, this is a must see for anyone with the slightest grain of environmental concern. You do wonder though about the size of this film's own "carbon footprint" as it flips from Holland to India to Africa. That worry aside, Ian Connacher packs a real punch as director-narrator. And, yes, I said "NO!" to plastic at Choices Foodstore today. After seeing this film, you will too.