A film by Hauke Wendler
Duration: 90 minutes/ 2021/ Germany/English, German, Italian, French, Luganda, Hindi, Portuguese with English Subtitles
The monobloc is the best-selling piece of furniture of all time. Estimates claim there are a billion of these cheap, often white plastic chairs in use – all over the world, in every country and every corner. How could it have come to this?
The feature-length documentary MONOBLOC tells the story of how this unassuming chair ridiculed by many conquered the world. How it destroys livelihoods and brings affluence. How it threatens our environment and ‘good taste’. Yet also about how the monobloc is indispensable for millions of people to whom a chair is a chair and nothing more. Grimme Prize winner Hauke Wendler worked on this film for eight years. Together with his camera team he travelled across half the world, from an industrial park in Italy to Uganda, the USA and on to the megacities of India, all the way to a favela in Brazil.
At the end of this long journey the film breaks our ultracomplex consumer world down to the question of what it truly takes in the life of a human being to be happy. MONOBLOC is a tale that an object tells with a critical eye toward globalization, a story that spans functionality and beauty, capitalism and sharing, consumption and recycling.
© Pier53 Filmproduktion
HAUKE WENDLER
Hauke Wendler is a well- known German journalist, documentary filmmaker and producer from Hamburg. His work focuses on the topics of refugees and migration. After studying politics and being a television writer for twelve years, he founded PIER 53 Filmproduktion in 2006 with his partner Carsten Rau. Their documentary films have won many awards, including the Grimme Prize several times.
Festivals that featured the film:
- DOK.fest Munich 2021
- Milano Design Film Festival 2021
- FilmFest Osnabrück 2021 (Opening Film)
- Nordische Filmtage 2021
- Braunschweig IFF 2021
- Kasseler Dokfest 2021
You can watch the film here.
After the screening, from 8.00 pm IST, you can join a live discussion about the film on Facebook which will be open to all.
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