Bag It

Try going a day without plastic. Go ahead. You’d be hard pressed to get out of bed without encountering the substance in one form or another. Plastic is everywhere and infiltrates our lives in unimaginable and alarming ways according to Suzan Beraza’s documentary, which is getting its first finished screening here in Telluride. What starts as a film about plastic bags, evolves into a wholesale investigation into plastic and its effect on our lives, bodies and waterways. Starring Telluride local Jeb Berrier, playing the role of the “everyman” (those of us who know him realize that this role is a stretch), the film travels around the world, from Telluride to Midway Island. As we learn more about how little we know about plastic, one thing becomes certain: The advice given to Dustin Hoffman’s character, Ben, in The Graduate—“One word: Plastics”—was right on. —DH