Everyday Activist - The True Cost

Posted on Tuesday, August 09, 2016 at 06:00 PM

The True Cost

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

I remember my mother telling me that she had to learn how to sew clothes, because she couldn’t afford to buy them. Nowadays it’s cheaper to buy clothes than it is to buy material to make them yourself. The documentary, The True Cost, examines why this is the case. Cutting right to the chase, cheap prices involve sweatshops, modern slavery and environmental degradation; forget the illness of our consumer mentality. Director Andrew Morgan touches on all these components as well as possible solutions to the cheap clothes question. I’m blown away at how much ground he was able to cover in ninety minutes.

You can’t talk about clothes without talking about Bangladesh. Given my father is from Bangladesh and I’ve witnessed the poverty on the streets first hand, this issue hits close to home for me, whether we’re talking about slave labor in the factories or poisoning of the environment due fabric dyes or even cotton farming disasters due to GMO cotton. In 2013, the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh killed hundreds of people. To make matters worse, it was completely preventable. Workers spoke out about the conditions of the building, but no one listened to them. Three years later not much has been done to improve conditions in the factories. Brands such as the GAP, Walmart and H&M raked in massive profits by taking advantage of these poor people. No one should have to die for the sake of fashion.

The film comes back to North America not only to address our consumer culture, but to talk about cotton farming in the US as well. People are dying from cancer in the US due to the harsh pesticides used in the agricultural process. This has led to farmers to turn to organic cotton. The director touched on how textiles are filling up landfills and when we do reuse them by sending them to poorer countries, these “donations” destroy local economies as no one can compete with free. They were also able to interview leaders in sustainable clothing such as Patagonia. I had the pleasure of listening to Yvon Chouinard talk about how doing the right thing such as using waterless dyes for their clothes has netted them profit.

In Calgary, I listened to a talk by the co-founder of Local Laundry http://locallaundryapparel.com/. While they do their best to sources their clothes from North America, they commented that potential customers constantly ask them where their clothes are made. Those people probably watched this documentary or Traceable. At the screening of Traceable in 2014 for the Marda Loop film festival, the maker of a technology called Source Map http://www.sourcemap.com/ joined the stage. This program allows companies to see where all their inputs come from to help them make better, more socially responsible choices.

The world is slowly changing as we have greater access to information and people share the great work that others are doing. Do your part. Know where your clothes come from. Buy what you will wear, not because it’s cheap, but because you love it. Shop second hand. This is the ONLY way big companies will change when they realize people are aware of the social and environmental impacts of cheap clothes. I leave you with this German social experiment, now screening on Netflix.

Calgary Showtimes: The True Cost >