This month's Ciné ONU film screening marked the "International Year of Sustainable Energy for all" and showed "The Light Bulb Conspiracy", a documentary on planned obsolescence and our throwaway lifestyles. Planned obsolescence describes the process of designing products that do not last long in order to sell more and boost consumption. The audience learned about product lifecycles, cartels and the illegal disposal of waste in developing countries.
The screening was followed by an animated panel discussion moderated by UNIS Director Janos Tisovszky and featuring director of the film Cosima Dannoritzer, Greenpeace consumer campaigner Claudia Sprinz as well as participants from the audience. Questions being discussed ranged from the future of our consumer society to the fate of our old electronic devices after being dumped at municipal collection sites. The film director as well as the Greenpeace representative advised the audience to rethink their consumer behaviour and try alternative ways of consumption such as supporting local producers or simply sharing and reusing old things.
"There are other forms of wealth than material ones" was one of the messages conveyed by the event and the audience left the Topkino with fresh ideas in mind about the way we consume today.
The next screening will be on 11 June 2012 with the documentary "Plastic Shores" on the occasion of the World Environment Day 2012 and the Rio+20 Conference.
For further information visit the Ciné-ONU page.
