Christina, 21, a Walmart pharmacy technician, en route to her wedding in Cinderella’s glass coach, drawn by six miniature white ponies and with bewigged coachman, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, 2013. All photographs by Lauren Greenfield, as reproduced in Generation Wealth

Generation Wealth premieres at Sundance

Lauren Greenfield’s film screens beside Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal movies at 2018’s festival

The Sundance Film Festival, staged each January in Park City, Utah, is the place to see tomorrow’s hit indie films. However, this month, alongside subtle, new, feature-length narrative works from Ethan Hawke, Gus Van Sant, Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Chloë Sevigny and Forest Whitaker, is one documentary puncturing a prevalent, contemporary dream.

 

A waitress cleans up a spill at a party hosted by whiskey maker Johnnie Walker on its branded, 157-foot yacht during the Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, 2013.
A waitress cleans up a spill at a party hosted by whiskey maker Johnnie Walker on its branded, 157-foot yacht during the Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, 2013.

Lauren Greenfield’s 108-minute documentary Generation Wealth premieres at the opening night of this month’s festival, on January 18. Characterised as a “postcard from the edge of the American Empire" it captures a portrait of a materialistic, image-obsessed culture. The film is a companion piece to the acclaimed photographer’s Phaidon book, which bears witness to the remarkable rise and fall of boom-and-bust economics in the US and elsewhere.

 

Susie, 43, with Dr. Adams, Laguna Beach, 2005. He became her third husband in 2006, but later that year she filed for a restraining order, claiming that he had attacked her, at one point screaming, “I’m going to rip your face off.” They divorced in 2007
Susie, 43, with Dr. Adams, Laguna Beach, 2005. He became her third husband in 2006, but later that year she filed for a restraining order, claiming that he had attacked her, at one point screaming, “I’m going to rip your face off.” They divorced in 2007

There are foreclosed homes and hedge-fund financiers, fantastically wealthy men and women, and – crucially – many, many more who want to be just as rich.

Though Greenfield made her name as a photographer, this isn’t her first visit to Sundance. In 2012, her documentary, The Queen of Versailles, won the festival’s top directing award.

You can find out more about the screenings here, and if you can't get to Utah this month, don't worry, Generation Wealth the book is still available in our store, (and not at a super rich price). To see more, go here.