The world's largest man-made crisis? Shit.
Jack Sim is the World’s #2 Man.
What do you get when you cross an eccentric self-made man with a load of crap? Jack Sim.
To a stranger, he’s a guy obsessed with toilets, but to those who know him, he’s “Mr. Toilet,” a crusader for global sanitation. Born in the Singapore slums, Jack Sim knows firsthand the agonies of not having a proper loo. Now he’s dedicating his life to a crisis no one dares talk about: Shit.
Not having a place “to go” isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a problem that impacts 2.4 billion people worldwide. In India alone, 200,000 children die each year from lack of safe sanitation, while women are regularly raped because they have to defecate in public spaces.
Jack’s kids describe him as a 12-year old trapped in a 60-year old’s body. He’s full of jokes and it can be hard to take him seriously. But, he uses humour as his weapon to fight an uphill battle against bathroom taboos.
He founded the World Toilet Organization and spent the last 13 years lobbying 193 countries to raise awareness for proper sanitation. He even successfully lobbied the United Nations to create World Toilet Day – the first international day of celebration for the toilet.
Now he is plunged into his biggest challenge yet when asked to secure 6 million toilets for the “Clean India” initiative. But with few resources and no help from the government, his epic project and reputation are in jeopardy. Jack’s once supportive staff begins to doubt him; and when his family bonds start to fray over his obsessive dedication, he wonders if he's finally met his match.
Jack realizes there is a price to pay for being the world's #2 man, but as a su-poo-hero he can't quit.
Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man premiered at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2019.
CREDITS
Directed by Lily Zepeda
Produced by Lily Zepeda, Tchavdar Georgiev, Eugene Efuni
Co-producer: Greta McAnany
Exec. Producers: Conrad Whelan, Jason Choo
Written by Lily Zepeda, Tchavdar Georgiev,
Monique Zavistovski, Hee-Jae Park
Edited by Monique Zavistovski, Hee-Jae Park
Cinematography by Mrinal Desai, Saptarshi Roy,
Khairulhakim Mohamad Bashir, Siyan Liu
Music: Nick Urata
ANIMATION CREDITS
Design and Animation: Good Bad Habits
Character Design: Jiani Cao
Music (Reel): Nick Urata
Sound Design (Reel): Josh McCarthy
STILLS
PROCESS
Initial explorations
Jack Sim expression sheet
OFFICIAL TRAILER
Lily Zepeda has a passion for exploring unconventional stories.
Interviewing subjects ranging from Grammy award-winning musicians to Olympians, she went from TV production to embarking on a 5-year journey to make her first feature film Mr Toilet: The World’s #2 Man. She’s a Diversity Fellow and Accelerator Lab grantee from Chicken & Egg Pictures as well as a Hedgebrook Lab finalist. She has also has been selected to pitch at film festivals, including Big Sky, Hot Docs, Sheffield and Doc NYC.
Tchavdar Georgiev is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker.
The Desert of Forbidden Art (Independent Lens) that he produced and directed together with Amanda Pope was nominated for two Emmys and won international accolades.
He edited the two times Emmy-nominated Valentine Road (HBO) as well as Finders Keepers, both of which premiered at Sundance. He wrote, co-produced and edited Off The Rails (Hot Docs, Full Frame, Sundance Channel) that won many awards including DOC NYC FF. He edited Skidrow Marathon that won numerous awards including LAFF.
He directed and edited together with Dana Berry for Nat Geo Finding the Next Earth and edited the Emmy-nominated Alien Earths. He also edited on The American Meme (Tribeca FF, Hot Docs, Netflix Original), Served Like A Girl (SXSW, Independent Lens), One Lucky Elephant (Best Doc Editing at Woodstock FF) and Bite Size (Best Doc at Cinequest). He has also written, produced, directed or edited for BBC, History Channel, USA Network, STARZ and Amazon Studios.
Jack Sim