Lauren Greenfield is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and photographer. “The Queen of Versailles” won her the Best Documentary Director Award at Sundance Film Festival. She made her directorial debut with 2006’s “Thin.” Her viral ad, #LikeAGirl, swept commercial awards, including 14 Cannes Lions in 2015, was named third Best Ad of the Decade, and earned Greenfield the #1 director/Most Awarded Director by AdAge, the first woman to top this list.
“Generation Wealth” will premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival: London on June 2.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
LG: “Generation Wealth” is my 25-year exploration — as both a filmmaker and a photographer — documenting the excesses of wealth and celebrity that now define our culture. As I went through half-a-million photographs from my archive to create a visual record of this fundamental shift in our values, I revisited some of my most colorful subjects as well as my own past to explore the causes and effects of our worldwide obsession with money and image.
Bearing witness to the global boom and bust economy, “Generation Wealth” delves into the human cost of late stage capitalism, ambition, narcissism, and greed.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
LG: I have long been documenting the culture of materialism, celebrity, and image in my photography and films. When I made my last film, “The Queen of Versailles,” I witnessed the scale of the excess and the way consumerism has become an addiction whereby we have an insatiable thirst for more and more.
This film grew out of the realization from the financial crisis of 2008 — that this problem is international, is spreading like a virus, and has put us on an unsustainable path in terms of our economy, our environment, our relationships, and our souls.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
LG: I want people to think about how the culture affects our aspirations and behavior and the ways in which are all complicit in the story of “Generation Wealth.” I also hope people see the possibility for change in the deconstructing of the matrix we live in.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
LG: As we see the in the film, the process of figuring out the puzzle of “Generation Wealth” was irrationally ambitious and overwhelming. I went through half-a-million pictures and edited 200 interviews to figure out how we had changed in the span of a generation.
Once I understood the story in the photographs, I began to make the film which turned into a marathon 30-month edit. It was definitely the biggest creative challenge of my life, both because of the scale, but also because it became very personal and included myself and my family.
“Generation Wealth” was the first film I wrote so that was another layer of the creative challenge.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
LG: The film was funded by Amazon Studios.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Sundance London?
LG: I am so excited to be back at Sundance London. We were there for “The Queen of Versailles” and it was a wonderful audience. My photography has been published in the UK for many years and I began as an intern at the London Times Newspaper so I am really excited to be back with this film.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
LG: Best advice: “Follow your heart.”
Worst advice: “You have covered that subject already — you need to move on to something new.”
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
LG: Follow your heart and don’t let anything stand in the way of finding your voice and telling your story. Make your own films however possible — don’t wait for a job or for someone to magically show up with your financing.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
LG: I love Catherine Hardwicke’s “Thirteen”!
W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. Many women — and some men — in the industry are speaking publicly about their experiences being assaulted and harassed. What are your thoughts on the #TimesUp movement and the push for equality in the film business?
LG: I am really excited about the changes happening in Hollywood and the new consciousness about the ubiquitous discrimination of women. A big theme in “Generation Wealth” is the commodification of women’s bodies and gender has been a major issue in my photography and filmmaking.
Though “Generation Wealth” paints a dark picture of where we are as a culture today, it also shows the possibility of waking up to what is hiding in plain sight around us, and the powerful agency that comes with that. #MeToo is a wake-up moment that has been a long time coming and is the silver lining to our communal understanding of the horrors women have endured.
