Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

"Plastics" was the one-word bit of career advice a middle-aged man delivered to the young, aimless Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. His terse, confident endorsement of the endless possibilities of the man-made product was rightly met with derision by audiences. But now, decades later, we know there is nothing funny about the endless harm caused by discarded plastic. Award-winning sportscaster and journalist Angela Sun presents an alarming and insightful look at the problem in her directorial debut. PLASTIC PARADISE: THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH chronicles the devastating ecological impact that our castoff plastic bottles and bags have on the planet.

During her college years, Angela Sun conducted field research on the Great Barrier Reef and reef sharks, an experience that led her to further investigate man's effects on the sea. Sun - whose sportscasting career includes work on ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, Tennis Channel and Fox Sports - produced, shot and narrates her film, which takes a clear-eyed view of the way plastic waste, which never decomposes, is clogging our planet and devastating our ecology. Traveling all over the world, Sun charts in disturbing, vivid detail how coral reefs are being destroyed by plastic garbage, and how chemically treated plastic is being eaten by fish, which pass these dangerous chemicals on to the humans who eat them.