“Generation Wealth”: Documentary Overview
Lauren Greenfield’s documentary “Generation Wealth” explores how the pursue of financial-based ideals that arise from pop culture and bad parenting clash into a generation of regretful and unstable individuals. She uses her means as a professional photographer to dig through the stories of professionals in the financial & sexual sector, parents, her family, and journalist Chris Hedges to support the following thesis: establishing money as the main purpose in life will inevitably destroy an individual’s sense of priorities and undoubtfully end in emotional distress.
The first part of the film depicts her early work about how Los Angeles pop culture during the the 90’s and early 2000’ influence the life of upper middle-class teenagers. Greenfield uses audio tracks and photographs of social events and gatherings to reflect the corruption of childhood, inflation of egos and insecurities of a superficial-oriented society. According to Hedges, a phenomenon that started since the United States economic productive-to-consuming transition.
Later, the documentary discusses the effects of a money-oriented career in two financial sector professionals. The first one, a former hedge fund manager whose irregular actions converted him into a white-collar criminal and secondly, a woman whose workaholic behavior led her to a middle age reproductive crisis. The interview with the former manager uses his experiences to demonstrate the extent in which an individual sacrifices ethics to obtain financial incentives. On the other hand, the woman’s behavior exemplifies women objectification by portraying how she justifies her prodigal expenses in aesthetic procedures with work related purposes. In both cases, the over valuation of quixotical lifestyles creates a sense of inadequacy which exacerbates social dynamics.
Furthermore, Greenfield delves the social ideals of the sexual industry. She captures the opinions and thoughts of strippers, strip club managers and a pornstar about money. All of them share the same desire for the greenback. A desire that arises from scarcity of the basic needs and evolves into a never-ending downward spiral of immediate gratification, drugs, and mental disorders. According to Hedges, a pornographic society, consequence of unregulated capital that commoditize everything.
Lastly, the documentary reflects upon “what is important”. The interviews go around the family nucleus and the “roots”, meaning, knowing where we come from, traditions and idiosyncrasy. It claims that self-absorption due to the eternal pursue of pop culture idealization of money can destroy families. Example of this, a teenager who committed suicide, partly result of her mother’s obsession with beauty. The film concludes: what matters most is the relationships we nurture throughout our lives, pop culture deviates our sense of traditions and origins, thus any persistence towards the solely accumulation of capital results in regret and emotional distress.
Opinion
Lauren has done a wonderful job depicting what pop culture values and its consequences. She invites us to reflect upon the messages of mainstream entertainment. Messages that we should look out in urban musical genres, reality shows, social media, and the speech of the youth. Ideals that we must analyze with meticulosity to generate a critical view of our behavior and stay true to ourselves. Even though I do agree with most of the claims that the documentary states, I believe there is something missing. And that is, the way in which money can be used for the good; the real philanthropists, the impact of foundations and the evidence of how a capitalist society has resulted on positive outcomes. Nevertheless, I recommend this documentary to an audience who is willing to learn about the mistakes of others and is open to search for a “good side”.
