DocEdge: Mr Toilet review

“Turn­ing poop cul­ture into pop cul­ture is the fastest way to solve the san­i­ta­tion cri­sis.”

Hav­ing grown up in self-described slums of Sin­ga­pore before san­i­ta­tion arrived, Jack Sim has per­son­al expe­ri­ence of its val­ue. After being unsat­is­fied with his ear­ly suc­cess in busi­ness, he had a rethink, and made it his mis­sion to bring toi­lets to the world, which he does using a com­bi­na­tion of end­less poop jokes, glow­ing good humour, and bureau­crat­ic-speak only if strict­ly required. ‘It’s not right that two and a half bil­lion peo­ple do not have access to prop­er san­i­ta­tion when we can send space­craft to land on Mars,’ he says.

Among oth­er achieve­ments he found­ed the World Toi­let Organ­i­sa­tion, and per­suad­ed the UN to unan­i­mous­ly vote for the estab­lish­ment of World Toi­let Day. By his own account, his project is to per­suade peo­ple they want toi­lets as a first step. The affec­tion of his co-work­ers and fam­i­ly is obvi­ous as they ban­ter about him. ‘Hap­py are those who enjoy their shit jobs,’ he emails to his work­ers, who amongst oth­er projects, organ­ise ‘urgent runs’ as fund-rais­ers. ‘Get­ting peo­ple to give a shit,’ heads up a Pow­er­Point.

It’s an inspi­ra­tion to watch some­one who has cre­at­ed a role doing some­thing so use­ful, with­out over­shad­ow­ing those around him, and while clear­ly enjoy­ing him­self. The film-mak­ing is unob­tru­sive and live­ly, with some fun ani­mat­ed sec­tions.

High­ly rec­om­mend­ed.