DO I NEED THIS?

By Kate SCHERMERHORN

LUNA PARK PRODUCTIONS - as PROD

Female director - Completed 2023

A documentary film about consumerism, excess, and the stuff from which happiness is truly made.

Festivals
& Awards

Green Festival of San Francisco 2022
Audience Choice Award
Woods Hole Film Festival 2022
NH Docs 2022
Ojai Film Festival 2022
Santa Cruz Film Festival 2022
Malibu Film Festival 2022
Bravemaker Film Festival 2022
    • Year of production
    • 2023
    • Genres
    • Female director, Environmental, Documentary
    • Countries
    • USA
    • Languages
    • ENGLISH-UNITED STATES
    • Budget
    • 0.3 - 0.6 M$
    • Duration
    • 63 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Kate SCHERMERHORN
    • Producer(s)
    • Kate SCHERMERHORN (LUNA PARK PRODUCTIONS)
    • Synopsis
    • ‘Unique, quizzical, quirky, and funny’ - Film Threat

      ‘Immensely relatable’ - San Francisco Chronicle

      Do I Need This? is a documentary film about American excess and the stuff from which happiness is truly made.

      This quirky, relatable, and profound award-winning film delicately interweaves the filmmaker’s complicated relationship to her family possessions during the late stages of her parents’ lives, together with a journey into the homes and minds of her fellow Americans. The film explores late-in-life decisions related to the stuff we accumulate over a lifetime, and how it impacts our loved ones once we are gone.

      As the filmmaker’s mother declines from dementia, the film dives into more profound questions about the legacy we want to leave behind. Viewers are invited to ponder their own threshold for excess, and their own formula for a life well lived, through the eyes of a woman who hoards and hides it, a mostly minimalist Buddhist monk, and a colorful group of characters in between.

      Do I Need This? is motivated by the filmmaker’s concern for the dire environmental challenges facing our planet, and how our consumption habits fuel them. Yet the film’s focus is not on our impact on nature, and instead draws attention to our human nature to consume.

      On the surface, Do I Need This? is a joy ride through American excessive consumption habits. At its core, it is a deep and genuine reflection on aging, family, and happiness.