Generation Wealth

Photographer/Director Laurie Greenfield's Generation Wealth was extremely well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival (coming off of its appearances at Sundance and the Berlin Film Festival). It is a remarkable cinematic journey as she revisits those she has photographed for previous projects which have often focused on excessive wealth. Greenfield eloquently captures the decaying of the American Dream as a form of corrupt capitalism has eaten away at American idealism and replaced it with a form extreme narcistic materialism. In many ways this film explains - while barely mentioning him - how this country could elect corrupt narcissist as its President. It describes a country where beauty, sex, fame, and status have all become commodities on sale to the highest bidder Greenfield takes it a step further by intriguingly adding herself and her own family as part of the story and suggesting that her careerism is also part of the problem. The photography is beautiful and provides a powerful narrative of the collapse of the American Dream. Highly recommended to all who care about the future of America. Greenfield should be commended for a work that is both personal and political.