Kids + Money
© Lauren GreenfieldIn the documentary short film kids + money, Lauren Greenfield returns to her native Los Angeles to take the cultural temperature of a generation imprinted by commercial values. Born of the extremes of poverty and wealth that define the Los Angeles landscape, kids tell their stories in a series of cinematic portraits.
At a time in which the country is closely scrutinizing its financial situation and free wheeling spending of the past, Greenfield's look at young consumers' relationship to money is especially relevant. Once peripheral players in the marketplace, children are now at the epicenter of American consumer culture.
Kids and teens are constructing their identities and social worlds around the rampant acquisition and brazen display of the latest hot brands, making them the most trend-obsessed, consumer-involved, and materialistic generations in history.
The portraits here are of the film's subjects, hailing from diverse Los Angeles communities. From rich to poor, Pacific Palisades to East L.A., kids address how they are shaped by a culture of consumerism in interviews that accompany the pictures. kids + money is the latest chapter in Greenfield's decade long exploration of the role of consumerism in shaping youth culture.
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InstituteTM (collectively Institute Pictures, Institute Studios, & Institute Artist) is redefining how stories are produced and told in the 21st Century. Founded by Producer Frank Evers and Director/Visual Artist Lauren Greenfield, we are a multiplatform production company representing auteur-driven storytellers across commercials, photography, fine art, film, and technology — and producing original work across every screen that those stories live on. Our multiplatform expertise and established global relationships in entertainment, commercial, fine art, and journalism create unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. A film commission informs a photography campaign; a fine art practice shapes a commercial; an editorial relationship opens a documentary. Few companies operate fluently across all of these worlds. Institute was built this way from the ground up.
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