As this year draws to a close and I review the highlights of 2007, hearing from so many of you is at the top of my list. In releasing the film, The Story of Stuff, I feel like we took the temperature of the world and found that there are in fact many thousands of us who share the same dis-ease at the current consumer-crazed, throw away, unsustainable and unjust society. I am entering the New Year full of hope that there are so many of us, enough to chart a different path.
I have received over a thousand emails from people all over the world sharing their responses and own stories about Stuff. I love reading the stories from all of you, some of which cracked me up. One viewer asked me for the demographics of the DVD requests so she could move to the town with the most requests in order to have a stronger allied community. (The most requests have come from Oregon, I think.) I also enjoy reading the critical emails, as they help me understand the thinking of those whose analysis is far different than mine. So thanks for all those emails.
And who spray painted “storyofstuff.com” on that big piece of plywood propped up on the Van Ness exit off the highway in San Francisco? That was hilarious!
Thanks for helping to get the word out about the film, and more so for using it to start discussions about strategies for change. As of last week, the Story of Stuff website had been visited over 520,000 times in countries all over the world. The 99 countries with the highest viewership in order of number of viewers is: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, India, Netherlands, France, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Ireland, Hong Kong, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, Greece, Denmark, China, Romania, Austria, South Africa, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Malaysia, Philippines, Estonia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Columbia, Croatia, South Korea, Hungary, Luxembourg, Egypt, Taiwan, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, Iceland, Venezuela, Iran, Serbia and Montenegro, Latvia, Qatar, Ecuador, Bahamas, Uruguay, Panama, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Jordan, U.S. Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, Guatemala, Cayman Islands, Slovakia, Morocco, Jamaica, El Salvador, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Kenya, Lithuania, Netherlands Antilles, Malta, Cyprus, Nepal, Bahrain, Barbados, Bolivia, Honduras, Belarus, Cambodia, Macedonia, Myanmar, Bermuda, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Nicaragua.
Many people have asked for or offered to help with translations of the film. Soon in the new year we will start working on those, as well as closed captioning, so we’ll be in touch with everyone who asked about either soon.
In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy new year, a new year which brings us closer to peace, sustainability and equity.
All the best,
Annie
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January 1st, 2008 at 11:04 am
I wanted to tell you that this video rocked my thinking as it relates to consumerism and where my “stuff” goes when I am through with it. I’ve referenced this video a lot recently. I also wanted to share with you an idea I’ve had for this new year: I’d like to live simply so others may simply live. Keep up the great work and anything you can provide to help me (and others like me) live more simply would be greatly appreciated and (I am sure) felt into eternity.
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 am
Great work you’re doing. I’m glad I’ve found your site! I have a links page, and will include your site there when I get a chance.
January 4th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I can help translating the movie to russian and hebrew.
And I’m already spreading the links to this great site.I think that the movie need to be translated as soon as possible.Many people in other countries take “american lifestyle” as a target.As a life goal.If they would live as americans pictured in ad’s – that means their life is successful.And they don’t think that they are fooled by corporations and government.
Give me a sign if you need my help in translating!
Thank you for the movie!
January 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Any idea please on when the captions will be ready?
We’re having on 2/2/08 an opening event for a community-tranformation process towards a more sustainable and ecological village, and I desperately need a Hebrew translation…
Any chance of having it by then? Can I help somehow?
GREAT work, by the way. Some of the stats are simply hard to believe…
January 7th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Sorry to leave this in a post but I’m watching w/o email right now…love this but found it funny that the movie is stopping in the middle of the “consumption isn’t making us happy and do you realize how much we buy” part! It’s almost as if someone has an agenda…
Kidding, but wanted to alert you that the movie is stopping there and again with about 40 seconds to go until the end no matter which browser I use.
Great site. I couldn’t convince my book group to read “Not Buying It” but now that this is making the rounds I bet it makes it on the list next time! Many thanks for this terrific site.
January 11th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I just found your website and watched the movie (linked to from here http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/).
Great movie. I’m an Australian living in Japan. I think the Japanese consume (buy and throw-out) more than Americans, is that right? Every week I see perfectly usable electronic goods, furniture, and clothing being thrown out on people’s front doorsteps for collection. I guess it goes to be burned or buried somewhere. They also consume billions of plastic bags and chopsticks every year!
Your story needs to be translated into Japanese and promoted over here.
Last year Al Gore’s movie was a big hit in Japan, it’s time for the Story of Stuff to come here.
An Inconvenient Truth Japanese homepage:
http://futsugou.jp
Funnily enough, the makers of the juice boxes you mentioned in your movie were a “partner” of Al Gore’s movie in Japan.
http://www.tetrapak.co.jp/
Also Seiyu (http://www.seiyu.co.jp/) owned by WalMart.
Is it impossible for those huge corporations to be part of saving the earth? Or are they the best ones to do it?
Good luck! Ganbare!
January 12th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Thanks for compiling and producing a video that in 20 minutes is able to to convey the importance of consumer & corporate responisibility. The bottom line is consumer responisibity. ‘We the people’ dictate what the corp mfgs do by our buying power. Remember that,
everyone.
I’ve posted & sent many a link to your site and video and expect that you will notice the numbers jump. I know many others spread your fantastic contribution.
Mahalo,DETOUR
January 29th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Estimada Annie, nos pareció fabuloso tu trabajo. Excelente en todo sentido. Te escribimos para contarte que estaremos impacientemente a la espera de la versión en español. Nos interesa mucho difundirlo entre la gente del pueblo que no manejan el inglés con fluidez. Gracias por este aporte y estaremos a la espera.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am
“One viewer asked me for the demographics of the DVD requests so she could move to the town with the most requests in order to have a stronger allied community. (The most requests have come from Oregon, I think.)”
No surprise! Tell that viewer that she will find the strongest allied community in Portland, Oregon! Eugene and Ashland are also strong, but if she really wants to find a local community of conscious people creating alternatives, Portland is probably the best in the United States.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
After watching the video and needing to purchase a bed…I’m the the search for a green mattress…any suggestions?
January 27th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
The video was absolutely awesome! I noticed that it is not in Japanese though. Is there a possibility that it will be translated in the near future? We run a Japanese University and would love to be able to share it with our students.
August 24th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
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September 4th, 2009 at 9:51 am
thanx for sharing to the netiziens
October 15th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Another disadvantage to van leasing is that it can be difficult to calculate the annual mileage and other charges. A leased van has a set number of miles that can be accumulated on it. If the number of miles exceeds this number, the charges can be quite costly. To avoid this, it is important to accurately calculate the mileage that one does in a year. Miscalculating this can lead to heavy charges that the individual or company leasing the van was not expecting. Other charges that may be included in a lease is that the individual will have to pay for any damages to the vehicle. Although this would probably be the case should the person own the van outright, there may be some minor damages that the individual would not bother in fixing if the van were their own property?