Director Pete McGrain talks about the inspiration behind his film "Ethos"

The signs that there is something wrong with our system are everywhere and with the internet we can easily see each new environmental or humanitarian catastrophe around the world happening in real time. When I stop to consider the amazing things the human race is capable of and then compare that to the world we have created I see this massive gap. There is so much unnecessary destruction and suffering.

Ethos, in many ways a distillation, was an attempt to draw an overview of the systemic mechanisms that shape our world and how they connect. None of the ideas in the film are new and I am not so much standing on the shoulders of giants, but rather crawling humbly at the feet of the many great thinkers and filmmakers whose work contributed to this film. But hopefully, for example, drawing a direct line between the manipulation of consumerism portrayed in Alan Curtis's Century of the Self, and the Military Industrial Complex of Eugene Jarecki's Why we fight, thus connecting the dots between corporate foreign plundering and our societies insatiable consumer appetite, was useful . I think we can begin to see the part that each and every one of us plays and the responsibility we all bare.

When I began the film I wanted to point the finger, to blame, and while it is easy to do that it is still 'our' consumerism that drives all of this, that causes the wars, the pollution and the waste. Yes, we have been and are still manipulated but I find this is a very weak defense for an adult in the 21st Century. It is our responsibility as adults to learn the facts and act accordingly and hopefully this film will provoke these questions and keep the debate rolling.

Lastly, I wanted to try and defeat the helplessness that so many people feel and offer a tangible way for people to get involved and make a real difference. Right now money is all powerful in our system. Once you understand that all money/wealth/power is derived from consumerism it is only a small leap to recognize the incredible power of our consumer choices to bring change.