Do I Need This?

Director Kate Schermerhorn expected to attend

Do I Need This? is a documentary film about American excess, and the stuff from which happiness is truly made. This timely, humorous, and moving film delicately interweaves the filmmaker’s complicated relationship with her family possessions, together with a journey into the homes and minds of her fellow Americans—from a hoarder to a Buddhist monk and a colorful group of characters in between. On the surface, it is a joy ride through American excessive consumption habits; at its core, it is a deep and genuine reflection on aging, family, and happiness. While the film is motivated by the filmmaker’s concern for the dire environmental challenges facing our planet, the focus is not on human consumers’ impact on nature, but instead on our human nature to consume. Viewers will never again have the luxury of buying something new without stopping to ask themselves, “do I really need this?”

Preceded by Brother