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Ronin Films

Shop for a film

BORN TO SHOP

Year: 1991

Classification: G

Runtime: 53 min

Produced In: Australia

Directed By: Sarah Gibson

Produced By: Sarah Gibson

Language: English

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Vimeo on demand

Whether you love shopping or hate it, whether your favourite shop is David Jones, the local bookshop, an open-air market or a hardware store, BORN TO SHOP will make you think about an ordinary activity in a new way. This film does not induce guilt!

The excitement of the search, the satisfaction of the find and the thrill of the purchase.

Shopping is the consuming passion of our times. It is no longer a necessity to shop. Shopping has become entertainment, a talent, a religion, a way of life. BORN TO SHOP examines why shopping has become one of the major leisure activities of the 1980s and 1990s. Why are we the 'born to shop' generation? We shop not because we need to, or we can afford to, but because we love it. It's retail therapy. It's experience of desire, of pleasure.

In BORN TO SHOP, images of shopping are juxtaposed with the visual world of the child. From a psychological perspective, the shop is a space for play, where we connect to a world of images and imagination, where we are 'fed' and sustained. We experience the pleasure and delight of childhood memory, experience and fantasy. We respond to objects with our primary senses - the way a child does. BORN TO SHOP argues that while we are shopping, we discover objects that resonate with our inner desires.

BORN TO SHOP places the internal psyche of the shopper within the historical context of retail and advertising strategy. Are we innocent victims of consumerism? Is the pleasure of the shop merely a response to sophisticated retail design? Do we discover things that express our individuality or are we just responding to a marketing strategy that anticipates our needs?

Writer, Producer, Director – Sarah Gibson
Cinematographer – Nicolette Freeman
Sound recordist – Debbie Lee
Editor – Diana Priest
Music – Elizabeth Drake
Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
© 1991, Inside Out Productions