Consumers love – and live on – their smartphones, tablets and laptops. A cascade of new devices pours endlessly into the market, promising even better communication, non-stop entertainment and instant information. The numbers are staggering. By 2020, four billion people will have a personal computer. Five billion will own a mobile phone. But this revolution has a dark side, hidden from most consumers. In an investigation that spans the globe, filmmaker Sue Williams investigates the underbelly of the electronics industry and reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs. From the intensely secretive factories in China, to a ravaged New York community and the high tech corridors of Silicon Valley. This is a story of environmental degradation, of health tragedies and the tipping point between consumerism and sustainability.

 

Directed by Sue Williams. Produced by Sue Williams and Hilary Klotz Steinman.

 

Death By Design

2016 US 74 min
Festival Year: 2017
Types: Documentary
Topic: Energy & Resources, Technology & Science