Pick of the Day: Dirt

The human body is a wonderous thing. It's also gross and disgusting. At least, that's the message that marketers in the West in particular try to pound into our heads in an effort to make us feel self-conscious about various bodily functions that might well be less-than-edifying, but that are at the very core of our humanity. The desire of certain unnamed individuals to shed their corporeal selves and be uploaded to the Matrix notwithstanding.


Just think of all the products out there that we can avail ourselves of to avoid offending not only others, but ourselves. Deodorants. Mouthwash. Anti-bacterial soaps. Perfumes. Colognes. Air-fresheners. Depilatory creams. The list is endless. Basic hygiene is an important component of good health, of course. But in modern society, it has arguably been taken to an extreme. Through multi-million dollar marketing campaigns corporations prey on our insecurities and make us ashamed to be human.


That's one of the themes that Vancouver filmmaker Meghna Haldar explores in her provocative documentary Dirt that's being screened tonight at the University of Regina (Campion College Auditorium, 7 p.m.) Of east Indian descent, Haldar also examines the link between dirt/dirtiness and racial/class prejudice where members of dominant society dismiss those lower down on the socio-economic ladder as being unclean.

Overall, Haldar's film, despite its simple name, encompasses a pretty fascinating topic. To conclude, here's a semi-dirty Mr. Clean TV ad (YouTube)