The documentary film 'The LightBulb Conspiracy' is based on Giles Slade's Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America (Harvard University Press, April 2006). It was made by Spanish filmmaker Cosima Dannoritzer whose films include: Re-Building Berlin (Channel 4, U.K., 1992, Journalism Prize of the Anglo-German Society 1993), Germany Inside Out (BBC, U.K. / YLE, Finland, 2001), If Rubbish Could Speak (TVE, Spain, 2003, awards from 'Ekotopfilm' and The'Green Vision Film Festival') and Electronic Amnesia (TVE, Spain, 2006).
The Vancouver DOXA film festival states, "By now we barely even question it: consumer products don't last. But, as this doc helpfully shows us, there was a time when the goods we spent our hard-earned money on could be counted on to keep working for years and years. What happened? Collusion of big business and the short-sighted desire for more manufacturing and sales created what is called "planned obsolescence."; Director Cosima Dannoritzer explores this phenomenon, centring on the seminal plan among light bulb manufacturers to create short-lasting products in order to increase their profits. And there's much more: the film takes on the particulars of contemporary consumerism, the remarkable story of an American fire station with an old-fashioned light bulb that's been working for decades, and the determined quest of one man to fix a printer that everyone he talks to tells him to throw out. Brisk and fact-filled, this is a disturbing but hopeful eye-opener.";