Bag It

About the Project

Bag It follows Jeb Berrier, an average American guy who is admittedly not a "tree hugger," who makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags. This simple action gets Jeb thinking about all kinds of plastic as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. When Jeb's journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up to us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now.

Bag It examines our society’s use and abuse of plastic. The theme of the film focuses on plastic as it relates to our society’s throw away mentality, our culture of convenience, and our over consumption of throwaway products and packaging—things that we use one time and then, without another thought, we throw them away. Where is AWAY?? THERE IS NO AWAY!! Away is over flowing landfills, clogged rivers, islands of trash in our oceans, and even our very own toxic bodies. Bag It offers a candid view of the disturbing realities of our culture. And, it suggests concrete solutions to our plastic addiction. The film will raise public awareness and inspire change, both on the individual level and on the public policy level, on the many issues related to plastic.
 
Bag It has powerful interviews and shocking facts mixed with provocative images. Yet Bag It is “user-friendly” in its tone. Bag It’s tone and style can best be described by one word—accessible. Jeb’s approach to the topic is fresh and light. Bag It manages to attract a diverse range of citizens to the film, not just environmentalists. We see our film reaching a wider demographic than most films that are “environmental” in scope. In order to capitalize on outreach and audience engagement, we hope to host public screenings across the country as a type of grassroots theatrical distribution. Bag It will be a tool for communities to use to get citizens on board for any number of grass roots campaigns. One primary target of our community engagement will be educational outreach in schools. We are creating several educational cuts of the film and educational curriculum packets to be used in the classroom. Bag It will be a tool for teachers across the country to raise awareness of the issues addressed in the film and to get kids involved.
 
The potential social impact this film has is tremendous. The more people learn about these issues, the more success we will have in helping reduce the consumption of single-use disposables, in cleaning up our ocean habitats, and having plastics and products tested for their safety before being put on the shelves. Action often starts at the individual level, with people making small changes in their own lives, changes that may seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of things—bringing their own bags, using less packaging, making sure they don’t use products with harmful chemicals. The filmmakers see these personal changes as the springboard for real community action: citizens becoming a member of a campaign, or even starting campaigns of their own. They hope to see this film directly connected with spurring changes to policy, from small town governments to large scale change in Washington.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to support the post-production and audience engagement for Bag It. This film brings a light-hearted tone to an issue that all of us deal with every single day. We believe it will remind people to think twice about the plastics they use on a daily basis.