After tackling climate change in his Oscar-nominated political satire “Don’t Look Up,” filmmaker Adam McKay has produced “You Need This,” a thought-provoking documentary tackling consumerism and hyper-capitalism.
Directed by Ryan Andrej Lough (“Entertainment”), “You Need This” is produced by McKay via Yellow Dot Studios; Isidoor Roebers and Lea Fels at Scenery, a joint venture with Banijay Benelux; and Tyler Owen and Cecilia Butler with Hôtel Motion Pictures.
ZDF Studios’ Off the Fence has acquired the premium documentary for worldwide rights across streaming, digital and broadcast platforms, for an anticipated 2025 premiere.
“You Need This” charts how consumerism emerged from the “unbridled optimism of 1950s America and evolved into a global system shaping our desires, identities, and behaviours. Conditioning the population to find meaning and status through endless consumption, this insatiable machine depletes our environment, strains our social bonds, and damages our well-being,” reads the synopsis.
The doc features interviews by bestselling writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, dream scientist Adam Haar-Horowitz, and lauded economist Juliet Schor.
Lough, director and producer at Hôtel Motion Pictures, said he “felt compelled to make this film after years of research on the topics within, disturbed by how consumer capitalism has reduced us to mere cogs in a system that causes more waste, division, and destruction than anything else in history.”
Calling it a “20th-century invention,” Lough says it “now dominates our lives, manipulating us without our awareness and profiting from the destruction of the planet and society.”
McKay, meanwhile, says “You Need This” reveals that “it’s not cultural or political divisions that have turned our world upside down, but the relentless quest for corporate profit fuelling consumerism.”
“Just as the film delves into the bleak impact of global consumption; it captures something remarkable: a growing awareness as people begin to wake up to the reality of the system we’ve been trapped in,” McKay continues.
Over at Scenery, Roebers and Fels describe “You Need This” as a “powerful wake-up call, offering a critical lens on the hyper-capitalist machine so deeply engrained in our culture, we barely notice its influence.”
The pair say the doc “pushes us to confront the real cost of our consumption and invites audiences to envision a future where the planet takes priority over profit.”
With Off the Fence’s backing, Roebers and Fels expect “You Need This” to “ignite a global conversation about our shared economic and environmental future.”
“You Need This” is narrated by comedy writer and actor Serra Naiman ( “I Wrote This for You”), and is executive produced by Yellow Dot’s Staci Roberts-Steele and Hôtel Motion Pictures’ Benjamin Rednour.
Scenery’s recent credits include “Front Row,” a gripping documentary feature executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, following a group of talented Ukrainian ballet dancers.
