The completed film, titled "Sh-t Saves the World," was released earlier this summer. The documentary focuses on the massive amount of feces that cover this planet, and the environmental and health problems that result from it. The film also offers several positive uses for the reuse and recycling of our own waste.

“In its essence, it's an environmental documentary,” Hale said. “But adding that comedic element to the documentary idea, I think gets the message across a bit better.”

The film features footage inside MSU’s Communication Arts and Sciences building and includes an interview with biosystems and agricultural engineering professor Dana Kirk. Hale said at least four MSU students worked on the project, most notably his former student Zoe Kissel. Kissel had originally helped sell the film to a sales agent and her brother Dylan Kissel, who completed the final audio mix for the documentary.

Hale managed to create his film while also working his full-time position at MSU by recruiting a friend to take his place at a shoot when he couldn't make it – enlisting another friend in California to shoot footage in San Diego and Mexico.

“When I traveled to Australia, I got some footage down there,” Hale said. “My folks wanted to take all the family on safari in Tanzania, And I said, ‘Well, that's great, I get to shoot some animals out there, that'd be great.’ I found that there's a lot of information that was viable to the film while I was out there.”

The movie focuses on the ubiquity of human waste across the globe and the problems associated with it. The documentary uses the history of toilets and the lack of proper waste disposal in the past, to showcase how crucial it is that we keep our waste and water separate, highlighting how waterborne diseases such as cholera were spread before humans had an understanding of how contaminated water can cause illness. The film also covers modern-day issues as well — like how 90% of sewage in developing countries is released untreated into bodies of water.

However, Hale wanted his film to have a positive message.

“There's a lot of environmental films that all talk about all kinds of issues … and there's really not a lot of solutions towards the end,” Hale said. “You feel down about what’s going on. And this film says ‘look, this is what all these people are doing in order to recycle human waste and turn it into electricity and mine it for precious metals and turn it into fertilizer, and whatever you can think of.”

In the film, Kirk explains how he has worked with the Detroit Zoo to build an anaerobic digester, which uses the zoo’s animal waste to produce electricity that the zoo then uses to power facilities such as its animal hospital.

Additionally, the film showcases how companies like Michigan’s Digested Organics can turn organic wastes like manure into clean water and how sewage can be used to create carbon-negative construction bricks.

Hale said the response to his film has been extremely positive, however, he plans to take a year off from filmmaking.

“Right now I'm spending a lot of time marketing and responding to emails from all these organizations and looking for partnerships, doing media … even after you put your film out, there's so much work that you have to do,” Hale said. Hale said he has been contacted by multiple organizations, including the Seattle Zoo, about his film.

"Sh*t Saves the World" is available on a wide range of streaming platforms, including Amazon, Apple TV, Vimeo and YouTube.