Monobloc / a film by Hauke Wendler ; written and directed by Hauke Wendler.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Wendler, Hauke, film director, screenwriter.

Sveistrup, Sigrid, editor of moving image work.

Mahlau, Boris, director of photography.

Hettinga, Taco van, composer.

PIER 53 Filmproduktion, production company.

Icarus Films, film distributor.

Language:

English

German

Portuguese

Subjects (All):

Plastic furniture.

Chairs.

Furniture industry and trade.

Genre:

Documentary films.

Nonfiction films.

Feature films.

Physical Description:

1 streaming video file (1 hr. 31 min.) : digital, sound, color

Distribution:

[Brooklyn, New York] : Icarus Films, [2022]

Place of Publication:

[Hamburg, Germany] : PIER 53 Filmproduktion, [2021]

Language Note:

In German and Portuguese with English subtitles; closed captioning available.

System Details:

System requirements: Firefox 4 and up; Safari 5.0 and up; Chrome version 21 and up; Internet Explorer 8 and up; Flash or HTML5 player.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Universally recognized yet frequently discarded, the monobloc plastic chair has been the world's best-selling piece of furniture since its invention in the 1970s, with over a billion units in circulation worldwide. Hauke Wendler's feature-length documentary Monobloc takes a closer look at this deceptively bland piece of furniture, exploring its ubiquity and streamlined production process as a potent microcosm of economic globalization and inequality. Originally conceived by Henry Massonnet as a fashionable design object for upper-class consumers, the pursuit of lowered production costs above all else soon led it to become a symbol of cheap design and bad taste across much of the first world. Filming across five continents, Wendler contrasts this disparaging view of the Monobloc with its role in many developing countries, where its low cost has made it one of the few pieces of furniture that impoverished families can afford. In Uganda we are introduced to Dan Schoendorfer, whose Free Wheelchair Mission has modified inexpensive Monoblocs to make wheelchairs available to millions for the first time. Trips to India and Brazil similarly reveal the chair's importance to the developing world, where local industrialist families have taken over the production and recycling process. Unexpectedly expansive in scope, Monobloc reveals how a single consumer product can tell a much broader story of global development, aesthetic judgement and economic inequality.

Credits:

Editor, Sigrid Sveistrup ; director of photography, Boris Mahlau ; music, Taco van Hettinga.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from title frames (Docuseek2, viewed April 26, 2022).

Publisher Number:

if-monob Docuseek2

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.