River Blue is a documentary film released two years ago which mostly follows river conservationist Mark Angelo as he uncovers and documents the impact of the pollution produced by the global fashion industry on our water ways. This documentary covers a three year period and looks at rivers all over the globe where no or un-followed environmental legalisations means that factories producing our clothes can release untreated toxins into the river systems of some of the poorest countries on our planet.
The first portion is a general overview with Mark Angelo (though there is a whole section about the pollution of the Ganges with human faeces. I'm not sure how that is connected to the fashion industry, but maybe it's just to highlight the idea that we just think it's all just wash away in the river) which shows rivers that are devoid of life, are black or indigo in colour, and are foaming. It also shows the workers in direct contact with the toxins being used, without any health and safety regulations (and definitely no protective clothing) to look after them. The second part looks at one specific area of the clothing industry, denim, the specific impact this is having and how some people in the industry are trying to change this. Interestingly they have some of the jean designers that designed the most popular styles we have today admitting that they had unwittingly produced a monster (my words not their's) which is now polluting the planet.
I have mixed feelings about this film. The information was useful and really important to see. I especially liked how they used jeans, a very, very popular fashion item, to really highlight the issues with the industry and that there are people out there trying to make a difference despite others just following the status quo. However, I felt the flow of the film was a bit off, especially near the beginning, that made it a bit more difficult to watch then it should have been. I guess that doesn't matter too much as most people watching it will be doing so because they are really interested in the subject matter. I also think that it would have been better to have Mark play a bigger part, possibly even narrating it himself in something similar to Racing Extinction and A Plastic Ocean. Still worth a watch though, especially if you need that extra boast to help you get off the fast fashion train.
Another documentary I thought I would just mention here as it's also about the negative impact the fashion industry is having on our environment is Stacey Dooley's Investigates episode called Fashion's Dirty Secret. In this series Stacey looks at a number of issues affecting young people around the world, including violence towards women and child abuse, so it's interesting to see that the impact of the fashion industry on both the environment and people has been investigated here too. This give a more broad overview of the issues, but is definitely worth a watch especially if you're just looking into this. At the moment it's available on BBC iPlayer, but I'm not sure how long for.
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