FLOSS! is a documentary about how one man comes to grips with dental flossing--and so much more. The film explores the broader topic of how to change old, deeply ingrained habits in our lives by using imagination to overcome cynicism. Using the "floss problem" as a metaphor and microcosmic example, the film looks at how to bridge the gap between intention and action. The filmmaker will appear in the film talking about his personal struggles and insights about how he came to terms with incorporating flossing into his life. Included also will be interviews with people about their creative uses of floss. Some of these stories include:

An inmate escaped from a West Virginia prison by braiding a 20-foot long rope out of dental floss and using it to scale the prison's 18-foot wall. He was later captured and sentenced to 30 years in jail--five of them for tossing the floss over the wall to escape. Afterwards, prison officials permanently banned the sale of dental floss at the prison store. As a result of this case, the state of Maine prohibited inmates from possessing dental floss. An inmate at a Maine prison then sued the state, seeking compensation for "discrimination and resulting stress and anxiety over the inability to fight tooth decay."

Some prisons do not allow inmates to have dental floss for another reason--it can be used to cut through steel bars. Says one prison official, "I couldn't believe it until I did it myself."

A quick-thinking nurse used dental floss to save her boyfriend from bleeding to death after a shark attack in the Bahamas. A shark shredded the man's arm while he was spear fishing on a boat. His girlfriend used dental floss to tie off an artery in his arm. "He was able to survive this tragic incident due to the fact his companion was able to stop the bleeding," a hospital spokesman said. "She gave him the opportunity to live."

A dentist talking about the connection between heart disease and gum disease and how flossing can help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

The National Library of Medicine is the home of the American Dental Association's film archives. The collection includes oral hygiene films dating from the early 1900's as well as Army and Navy training films that were used to teach the armed forces how to floss. (I will include excerpts from these films in mine.)

An author who wrote an article for a wildlife journal entitled, "An Alternative Means of Descenting Skunks." Instead of cutting off the scent glands when doing experiments on live skunks, he came up with a more humane way to do it--(you guessed it--temporarily tying up the scent glands with dental floss.

A spokesman for the "Crypt of Civilization" in Atlanta. The Crypt is a time capsule that was created in the 1930's to "condense knowledge accumulated during the previous 6000 years and seal it until May 28, 8113." A partial list of contents includes: a reproduction of a painting of roses, an electric "Toastolator," a piece of aluminum foil, a badminton set, a plastic beetle, a Donald Duck toy, a quart of beer, and, of course--a package of dental floss.

Iron Frog Productions has received a grant for the production of FLOSS! from the Boston/Film Video Foundation, as part of the Massachusetts Media Fellowship Program. The video is being produced under the fiscal sponsorship of The Writers Room of Boston, Inc.