Bands Seera and Garwasha flourish in Saudi Arabia’s community-driven music scene

The 2024 Netflix documentary, “Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy,” offers a sharp critique of consumer culture through a visually stunning and dynamic presentation.

Directed by Nic Stacey, it delves into the manipulative tactics used by corporations like Amazon, Apple and Adidas to fuel relentless consumerism. It exposes how they deploy psychological strategies in order to keep consumers trapped in a treadmill of purchasing and re-purchasing — often at the expense of the buyers’ well-being and a negative cost to the environment.

The documentary examines how brands use storytelling to forge emotional connections with customers. Experts reveal how companies transform products into symbols of identity, persuading consumers to buy far more than necessary with the false promise of attaining a certain lifestyle or belonging to a community.

This phantom promise fosters loyalty and ensures repeat purchases as consumers feel aligned with perceived values or aspirations.

The environmental and ethical consequences of this disposability-driven culture are central to the film. It questions why consumers are convinced they need to replace items constantly when instead we should prioritize longevity.

Surely, with the advancement in technology and innovation, the devices in our pockets or the clothing in our closets should be built to last? And why are we convinced that we must entirely replace our electronics and fabrics with every new update or season?

The program critiques online shopping, uncovering how algorithms, targeted ads and endless scrolling drive impulsive purchases. It reveals the “free shipping trick,” where consumers buy unnecessary items to meet free-delivery thresholds and highlights the pressure of seasonal events like Black Friday, which foster urgency and overconsumption.

One especially compelling topic is “greenwashing,” where companies project an environmentally responsible image while shifting the burden of sustainability onto consumers. By emphasizing recyclable packaging or eco-friendly claims, brands appear to care about the planet but abdicate responsibility once the sale is made. Many “recyclable” packages are not, the footage shows.

“When we throw it away, we actually don’t throw it away. ‘Away’ doesn’t exist,” the documentary states. “It ends up somewhere else on this planet Earth. And it increasingly has consequences.”

One of the more striking revelations is the deliberate destruction of unsold goods. The documentary exposes how many companies instruct employees to deliberately destroy perfectly usable items to prevent them from being salvaged or resold — prioritizing profits over ethics.

The documentary also stresses that donating the extra stuff we have is not the answer. We simply have too much. We cannot recycle our way out of the waste generated by rampant consumerism.

While the program did not teach us anything entirely new, it is still a sobering reminder that we are not only what we eat, but what we buy.

Ultimately, “Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy” is a call to action, urging viewers to question the broader implications of consumption while holding corporations accountable for their role in perpetuating this vicious and seemingly endless cycle.

PARK CITY, United States: Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis was in the West Bank, days away from shooting her ambitious and deeply personal drama “All That’s Left Of You,” when the events of October 7, 2023 forced a radical rethink.
“We were forced to evacuate... It was really devastating to have to leave our Palestinian crew behind,” recalled Dabis.
“Everyone was so excited to work on this historic Palestinian film that felt like a milestone.”
The film — one of two Palestinian movies premiering at this year’s Sundance festival — follows three generations of a family who were expelled from coastal Jaffa in 1948, and sent to the West Bank.

Costing between $5-8 million, it is a rare example of a major Palestinian-centered feature film getting a high-profile premiere in the West.
“It’s really, really hard to make any film, but it’s particularly hard to make a Palestinian film,” said Dabis.
“It’s hard to raise money for these films... I think people have perhaps been afraid to tell the story.”
Both intimate and epic in scope, the film jumps chronologically, from 1948 through the decades to the near-present day.

Dabis herself stars as a mother forced to confront an impossible decision when her son is wounded in 1988 during the first intifada, or uprising.
Many of the stories are based on the real experiences of Dabis and her family.
In one harrowing scene, a father is humiliated at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers in front of his young child, creating a father-son rift that will never heal.
“I saw my dad humiliated at borders and checkpoints,” said Dabis, who visited the West Bank frequently as a child.
“He confronted the soldiers, and they started screaming at him, and I was convinced they were going to kill him.”

Though the film centers on a single family and is deeply personal in nature, the divisive nature of its subject matter means “All That’s Left Of You” is certain to provoke criticism.
Dabis says that the film does not set out to be political, but accepts that the impression is unavoidable.
“We can’t tell our stories without having to answer to some political questions,” she told AFP.
“We should be able to share our life experiences and tell our personal and family stories and share our points of view without having to contend with blowback.
“So often we do end up fearing it, even before we have told the story.”
That political reality reared again in October 2023, when the Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 47,306 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Dabis and her team fled, and completed the film by using locations in Jordan, Cyprus and Greece standing in for her ancestral homeland.
“I’m actually still shocked that we finished the film,” Dabis told the premiere audience.
It does not yet have a theatrical distributor.

Also premiering at Sundance on Sunday is documentary “Coexistence My Ass!“
It follows Jewish peace activist-turned-comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, as she constructs a one-woman show and grapples with the consequences of Israel’s military campaign.
“As an activist, I reached 20 people, and in a viral video mocking dictators, I reached 20 million people,” she told AFP, admitting she is “anxious” about how the film will be received.
Earlier this week, “No Other Land,” a film by a Palestinian-Israeli activist collective about Palestinians displaced by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank, earned an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature.
It still does not have a US distributor.
“The industry has to ask itself... there obviously is a need for these films, people want to see these films,” said “Coexistence My Ass!” director Amber Fares.
“I do think that perhaps in the last few years, we have seen a shift,” added Dabis.
“People are understanding that there’s a dearth of our stories.. and that our stories are really missing from the mainstream narrative.”