OZOlife - your daily guide to smarter living

Whether following a group of American hairdressers who opened the first post-Taliban beauty school in Afghanistan for 2004's The Beauty Academy of Kabul or the making of a big-budget Bollywood gangster movie whose star is caught up in a terrorism trial for 2007's Shot in Bombay, independent filmmaker Liz Mermin’s critically acclaimed documentaries explore provocative social issues with a dry sense of humor. The former New Yorker recently relocated to London, where she discussed her nomadic lifestyle and the recycled paper towel conundrum.

What was your green turning point?
I grew up in Ithaca, NY, which is ahead of the curve in just about everything that has to do with social consciousness … And my father had a strangely puritanical view on energy use, so I grew up in a house where we froze all winter and never left the lights on. Though I resented it as a kid, those habits have become a natural part of my life.

What has been your biggest lifestyle change?
I haven't made any major changes, actually. I just keep trying to do the right thing. (And [I] often get confused about things like recycled paper towels; still can't figure out if they're good or bad.) I've never had a car or big house, so that makes it easier.

What's your favorite eco element of your home?
At the moment I don't really have a home. The house I'm staying in now is in a neighborhood [that] collects organic materials for compost recycling — I think that's kind of cool. It gets a little messy, but it also means the garbage is much less offensive.

What do you hope to pass down to your children?
My greatest contribution to the greening of society is not having children. But it'd be nice if other people's children had clean air. I've worked in Mumbai, and after a week in traffic there you can hardly breathe — it's horrible to imagine the lungs of kids who grow up there.