Generation Wealth

Film-maker Lauren Greenfield has spent 25 years documenting our global obsession with money. The result is a fascinating insight across 17 countries into the highs and devastating lows it can bring.

I came up with the idea of Generation Wealth while making a documentary, The Queen Of Versailles (2012), based on a couple I met – Jackie and David Siegel – who were building the biggest house in America. I was attracted to them because they personified the ideals of the American dream and how it had blown up. When they ran into financial trouble and were forced to put the house up for sale, their super-sized wealth story took a different turn. It was then that I realised across the world, rich or poor, everyone was living beyond their means, and that I had been shooting this behaviour and the psychology behind it throughout my whole career.