Bullfrog Films
22 minutes
Study Guide
Grades 7-12, College, Adult

Directed by David Springbett
Produced by Asterisk Productions

DVD Purchase $79, Rent $45

US Release Date: 1991
Copyright Date: 1990
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-919-4
VHS ISBN: 1-56029-379-9

Subjects
African Studies
Economics
Humanities
Recycling
Social Psychology
Technology

Awards and Festivals
Blue Ribbon, American Film & Video Festival
Bronze Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival
No Spare Parts

Ingenious recycling of used car parts in Ghana.

"Unique presentation... appropriate in classes studying Third World development on the high school or college level." ***Video Rating Guide for Libraries

NO SPARE PARTS portrays the introduction and utilization of appropriate technology in a developing nation. In Ghana, thrown away materials are being recovered, and used to build and modernize their economy.

Requiring only minimal financial resources, small workshops use recycled automobile parts and traditional crafting skills to produce machinery of great benefit to the local people. Grinding mills, lathes, palm oil presses and lumber saws, all made from scrap, enable the population to improve their everyday lives.

Ghana's utilization of discards as a resource for raw materials reduces their reliance on imports and improves their independence and self-reliance. The appropriate technology movement is burgeoning in Ghana and having a beneficial impact on all levels of society. There's a message here for our own throw-away society, and a lesson in ingenuity.

Web Page: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/nsp.html

Reviews
"Unique presentation... appropriate in classes studying Third World development on the high school or college level."

***Video Rating Guide for Libraries

"David Suzuki hosts this documentary... suggests benefits of reusing metal products to first-world countries, too."
Booklist