What exactly is The Bottom Line?

To some people, this idea may seem ludicrous given the various arguments that it takes more than a handful of consumers to really help; or that honestly it costs a lot more money to buy organic or fair trade products; or the skepticism related to big corporations and whether or not they really utilize their products to really make a substantial change; or the implausible notion that we as consumers actually have time to research and find out where we can buy these products that will assist those in need. We are human and we do want to help, but these arguments are justifiable and need to be openly discussed and hashed out. This dialogue is what we hope will happen through this multi-media journey known as The Bottom Line. 

Why produce a podcast?

Our desire is that The Bottom Line Podcast becomes a stimulus to attract viewer's attention to the documentary that we hope to complete by the end of 2008. Likewise, hopefully The Bottom Line Documentary will drive viewers who want to understand this issue with more detailed clarity back to the video podcast. This confluence of media platforms will allow us to journey into the heart of what conscientious consumerism is all about.

Sometime in early 2008 we will begin broadcasting The Bottom Line Podcast on a weekly basis. Since we know where we are headed with these issues due to the hundreds upon hundreds of research hours already put into this project, below are links with short descriptions concerning what each podcast will attempt to address for the first 52 weeks.

Why make a documentary film?

Documentary has as its root word, document which comes from the Latin docere meaning to teach.  The bottom line about The Bottom Line is that we are on this personal journey of trying to make sense of this globalize world. Our attempt to inform others is really born out of our desire to discover for ourselves how we personally can become ethically-minded consumers.

By teaching consumers the importance of economical shopping but never highlighting ethical shopping; by training people to think of their purchasing power in pragmatic terms but never educating them on how to think as conscientious consumers; by instructing individuals in the area of saving dollar and cents but never in the area of buying wisely in order to save lives (or at the very least helping to alter the unjust working conditions that exists in our world today); the financial culture for most mainstream Americans seems somewhat skewed.

After several years of preparing for this moment, this past summer we transitioned from the pre-production phase to the actual shooting phase and conducted interviews in England and Washington DC. We will be filming in a variety of global locations over the next fifteen months or so in order to paint as objective a picture as we possibly can, pertaining to this issue of ethical shopping.