THE MAKING OF TUPPERWARE!
By Laurie Kahn-Leavitt

AS WITH ALL FILMS, this one has been a collaborative effort, and I am delighted that I had such a terrific team. Individuals from every conceivable background have generously helped out in the making of this film; it has been a labor of love for all of us.

THE IDEA
I CAME ACROSS the story of Tupperware’s early years in an unpredictable, roundabout way. While researching my last film, A Midwife’s Tale, which is based on the diary of an 18th century midwife in Maine, I had to think a lot about the things in their lives: their tools, their clothing, their domestic objects, their medical devices. I also had to think through what all of these objects meant to them. All of this research forced me to see my own world in a different way. Observing the stuff of our modern world, I saw plastic — everywhere: in our cars, our houses, our clothing, our medical devices, our toys, even our weapons. So I decided to make a series of films about the history of plastic, examining its far-reaching but often subtle impact on our culture. I planned to start with the invention of celluloid at the end of the 19th century and work my way through to the invention of polar fleece at the end of the 20th century.