A film title that may feel less than serious than it actually is, as this film has an important message. A docu-film about one man’s mission to focus world attention on the enormous percentage of the population who have no access to basic sanitation and/or water. What percentage? According to the World Health Organisation it’s over 2 billion, which to provide a perspective one can more easily imagine is over 25% of the world’s population!

In ‘Mr. Toilet. The World’s #2 Man’ prepare to wade through a lot of poo and unpleasantness that should make you open your eyes to these problems, even if you have to pinch your nose. To get the message across Jack Sim does exactly that, by taking a serious subject with a twist of humour to engage his audience. You’ll see many striking visions of just how bad it really is and how, quite frankly, not enough is being done to resolve the problem, nor to educate and encourage use of toilets and better sanitation practices.

In the earliest times, people really weren’t that fussy about privacy nor easily embarrassed about open defecation, so they tended to just go, when and where they felt like it. Before the first toilets, people lived by, washed, drank and defecated in rivers. But, it wasn’t long before our ancestors figured it was not such a great idea to use the same cleaning and drinking spot in the rivers to also go the loo. They soon understood it was better to wash upstream and do their ablutions downstream, so as not to mix the two! Civilisation was beginning to dawn. It’s been slow progress over thousands of years for the evolution of the ablution and sanitation to get to where it is today. But in these poorer places it’s not a great deal different to those earliest times, the outcome of which is spreading disease and many other serious and worrying peripheral problems.

But, when you get the likes of politicians and ambassadors around the world, plus the UN, Water Aid, Water.org, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the WHO involved, and then add Matt Damon into the mix plus get a movie made about you, then you’ll see why Jack really does make a difference. The film is engaging and honest, but could perhaps have a slightly different structure and focus for a call to action i.e. tangible results. That said it’s a remarkable achievement and Jack’s personality, passion, positivity and engaging nature are getting results and a lot of media attention – if that makes a difference and improves sanitation in those poorer cultures, then ultimately it makes a difference to us all and he has to be congratulated.

If you’ve got Amazon Prime then it’s free, if not… check it out anyway, ‘Mr. Toilet, The World’s #2 Man‘ starring Jack Sim, founder of WorldToiletDay [every year on Nov 19th.]