After reading A Poison Like No Other by Matt Simon, I knew I wanted to make a video on microplastics. The overwhelming feeling I got from reading that book was dread at the building realization that microplastics really are everywhere. They’re on the top of Mount Everest, the bottom of the Mariana Trench; they’re in the air and the water; they’re in our lungs and in our blood.
For A salad full of glitter, I wanted to take a more cinematic approach. This was partly because I wanted to stretch my creative chops, but also because I wanted to tell a story of sorts: I wanted to tell a simple story about a person going about their regular day-in-the-life, but everywhere he turns, he encounters plastics and microplastics. I want the viewer to have the same journey I did during my research, realizing that we are absolutely surrounded and there is no escape.
The video has some useful tips for how to reduce your own exposure, but the truth is that you cutting out plastic straws and bringing your canvas bags to the store isn’t solving the problem. This is a global issue, and we need to be taking it seriously and pressuring policymakers around the world to do better.
I put a lot of love and effort into this project, you can check it out here!