The Film · Premiere 10 September 2026
You count your calories, monitor your sleep, and hit the gym. What if one action you repeat thousands of times a day is undermining all of it?
The Premise
Shoes are the most ordinary thing we own. In every closet, on almost every foot on Earth, worn without a second thought.
Stupid Shoes is an investigative documentary about modern footwear design and foot health: what that ordinary object has been quietly doing to us, and why an answer sitting in plain sight for 245 years still hasn't reached the people wearing the shoes.
“A must-watch for anybody with hip, back, knee or neck pain.”
Featuring
Podiatrists, archaeologists, psychologists, chiropractors and the people who design the shoes. Each with a piece of the puzzle, from bunions and hammertoes to how to fix this moving forward.
The Filmmaker
A decade ago I had foot surgery to fix a common bunion. The surgeon told me it was bad genetic luck. No other explanation, no other option. I believed him. Why wouldn't I. That's what the science said.
Years later I came across a video online showing how a normal sneaker squishes our toes together. Could that have been what caused my bunion?
That sent me looking for answers. And I found them fast, not because I'm some kind of genius researcher, but because the answers were already sitting in plain sight. In podiatry offices. In psychology books and archaeology museums. In journals going back further than I expected. The science wasn't new. The problem wasn't complicated. Just that nobody seemed bothered to ask questions.
I made this film because I did start asking questions, by accident, and it changed more than I expected. Not just how I walk. How I feel. I'm in less pain and moving better in my 50s than I was in my 30s. That's not OK. I want to hand over what I found to everyone who kicks off their shoes knowing in their bones that something is off.
— Dee Libine, Director
Danielle (Dee) Libine is a debuting documentary filmmaker and experienced entrepreneur based in Switzerland, with over 20 years in visual creation, business coaching and digital strategy. Stupid Shoes is her first feature documentary.
Music composed by Thibaut Falgairette, Swiss Media Productions
Follow along
Clips, evidence, and the odd argument with a shoe.
Get notified
More watch parties and on-demand editions are on the way. Tell me which ones to email you about when they go on sale.
