Episode 6 - Lily Zepeda - “Waterfalls”
August 14, 2020
In this week’s episode, I speak with Lily Zepeda, director, producer & writer of Mr: TOILET: The World’s #2 Man. Because she is a self-proclaimed of the child of the nineties, this week’s song is TLC’s “Waterfalls.”


Lily’s Bio
Lily Zepeda is an LA-based filmmaker whose most recent documentary feature, MR TOILET: The World’s #2 Man, won the Docs for Schools Audience Award, was theatrically released in NY & LA in 2019 and toured in over two dozen cities worldwide. She is a Diversity Fellow and Accelerator Lab grantee from Chicken & Egg Pictures as well as a Hedgebrook Lab finalist. As a producer, writer, and director, Lily spent over five years capturing the challenges and triumphs of global change-makers while filming in Singapore, China, India, and the US. She has been invited to speak on festival panels and at pitch sessions such as at DOC NYC, Hot Docs, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and Sheffield Documentary Film Festival.
Mr. TOILET: The World’s #2 Man Logline
MR TOILET: The World’s #2 Man follows the eccentric entrepreneur Jack Sim (AKA “Mr. Toilet”) who uses humor to break poo taboos and help the 2.4 billion who lack access to safe sanitation.
Mr. TOILET: The World’s #2 Man Synopsis
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 humor 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.
Mr. Toilet realizes there is a price to pay for being the world’s #2 man, but as a su-poo-hero he can’t quit.
Websites & Social Media
Hotels
People
Restaurants
Other Companies
Other Organizations
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Universities
Lily’s Info
Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man
Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man - Facebook
Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man - Instagram
Jack Sim’s Info
Film Animators
Good Bad Habits - Kunal & Tisha
Film Festivals
Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival
Film Labs
Film Pitching Events
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Film Organizations