By Alex Silverman
On a sunny day at the beach, a man sits by the shore and begins to read his book. Suddenly, he sees a young boy walking along and picking up every piece of trash he can find. At first he seems to scoff at the idea of what the boy is trying to do until he is told by the boy that change starts with one person. The man reflects on this and ultimately joins the boy to walk along the shore, picking up trash as they go. While it is a short story, the lesson it tries to teach is what ultimately matters.
Our planet is constantly being polluted in our beaches, forests, mountains, and our skies. While this film’s message is nothing new, it is still needed nonetheless, and everyone, no matter their age, can do something to help out. Sure, it may start out with one person walking along and cleaning the beach just like this film shows us, but it can lead to more and more people being inspired to help clean that beach until all the trash is gone.
The ultimate message of this film is that the positive action of one person can lead to a chain reaction and effective change. One at a Time, directed by Jacob Reinhart, does this well and in a simple way. It is short, sweet and to the point. But while it has a great message, I wish the filmmaker had expanded on the story a little more because it would have benefitted the project. There was also an issue regarding the placement of on-screen text. Some of the messages that were displayed were not readable because they were placed in an area where the background made it difficult to see the words. But, with that said, it was still a heartfelt story, with a great message, and a great presentation.
I would give this film 4 out of 5 stars.
Alex is a recent graduate from Columbia College Chicago with a major in Comedic Writing & Performance and a minor in Writing for Television. Apart from his work as part of the Planet Classroom Film Selection team at CMRubinWorld, he served as a screening panelist intern for the International Children’s Media Center, a sketch writer, and an on-set production assistant at the 61st Annual Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards.
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