River Blue: Can Fashion Save the Planet?
River Blue is showing at the New Jersey Film Festival February 12th 2017, 7:00 pm
At Voorhees Hall #105, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Directed by David McIlvride and Roger Williams
Water is essential to life; it’s basic and primordial. Humans need it to live — to slake thirst, to cook, to grow crops, to bathe and wash clothes. Where they’re abundant and pristine, the world’s lakes, rivers and streams have nourished humans and nurtured their endeavors, including their crops, their businesses, and their recreation, for eons.
With the help of international river conservationist Mark Angelo, the documentary River Blue: Can Fashion Save the Planet? focuses on textile production, particularly of denim, to demonstrate the toxic effects of some manufacturing systems. Its focus on the fashion industry, which depends mightily on water, provides a disconcerting look into this dark side of the production and dyeing of textiles, sometimes using toxic chemicals and going through gallons of water, depleting and poisoning the water sources of too many people who live near their factories.
“No one has the right to damage or destroy a river,” Angelo, an avid kayaker, canoeist and rafter, and the founder and chair of BC Rivers Day and World Rivers Day, says in the film.
While this is an activist film — Canadian-American actor-director Jason Priestley, who narrates, is also an environmental activist who has campaigned to preserve the world’s oceans — with an often disturbing look at toxic waste disposal and high water use by textile factories, it isn’t just a screed against the fashion industry. The 90-minute documentary also notes that, while apparel manufacture has become known as a major factor in the pollution of the world’s waterways, the industry is also taking crucial steps in reducing water use and finding less destructive ways to useand re-usewater.
Indeed, the movie demonstrates that when fashion makers — and their customers — are willing, steps can be taken to effectively preserve waterways and protect water sources for the humans that depend on them. Featured in the film is Jeanologia, a world leader in sustainable and efficient technologies, equipment and consulting for the garment finishing industry. Enrique Silla, President of Jeanologia, talks about his concern for the environment in the film.
The trouble is, as the filmmakers also note, that usually means innovating more sustainable methods, introducing new practices to replace the old, and adding steps and time to the processes — all things that make the final products more expensive.
Yet the only way to support such innovations is to ensure the end products have a market. That entails educating consumers on the value of paying more for their favorite jeans and other apparel, that the investment is a contribution to the environment and humanity. And it requires being straight with them about how super-cheap garments may be more costly to society and the planet in the long run.
The film is a travelogue of sorts, taking viewers to see rivers in Zimbabwe, China, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, England, Australia, Spain, Italy, and the United States. Angelo shows rivers that are sullied by careless and even abuse treatment and contrasts them with those that are treated more carefully, providing thriving ecosystems suitable to human health and enterprise.
The film is on the festival circuit now, and will be shown at the New Jersey Film Festival on Feb. 12. Check here http://riverbluethemovie.com/find-a-screening/ for more screenings worldwide in the coming months.