Plastiki and the Material of the Future (2011)

Inspired by the recent discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an unlikely boat is built from 10,000 reclaimed plastic bottles and attempts to sail across the Pacific Ocean in hopes of retelling the forgotten, misconstrued, and foreboding story of plastic to our disinterested culture of convenience. The same miracle material that has enabled us to land on the moon, rebuild a human heart, curb epidemics, and alter the course of history, is now showing up in ominous human-fingerprints across the planet: choking our oceans and poisoning our lives. This is a film about an improbable high-seas adventure that captured the imagination of thousands, and the debacle of a forgotten miracle to a world of excess.