Inhabit - A Permaculture Perspective

Permaculture is a design method that offers a unique ecological lens for addressing issues related to agriculture, economics, governance, resource use, and so on.

Inhabit - A Permaculture Perspective is an inspiring feature length documentary that explores various permaculture projects, concepts, and people around the United States. What emerges are themes and messages that become accessible to a diverse audience.

For those who are brand new to permaculture, or for those who are already deeply into the art and science of it, you will feel the thrill of seeing what is possible in these amazing projects, and be called to action.

What is a Permaculture Perspective?

More than highly productive gardening and resource use -- which it is -- permaculture is a way of relating to the Earth. Human activity on the land can be respectful of life and instead of extractive it can be regenerative. We are capable of thriving within our limits, benefitting other species, and building more resilient food production at the same time.

Gorgeously shot, mostly in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States, Inhabit provides an intimate look at over 20 sites in a range of rural, suburban, and urban environments. Follow the journey to uncover of a breadth of responses to local and global challenges from issues of food, water, and medicine, to governance, economy, and culture.

Ecovillage Pioneers

Tony Wrench of Wales had a natural building that radically challenged and altered the government’s policy on low impact housing. This paved the way for Lammas - the UK’s first planned ecovillage, on brilliant display in this film.

Take a journey following the pioneers of low impact living as a young mother journeys through Australia, Spain, the UK, and Ireland, in search of a more sustainable way of life.

A journey towards low impact living

Independent film-maker Helen iles explores community living at Crystal Waters permaculture village in Australia, appropriate technology at Sunseed in Spain, and spiritual connection with the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. She visits Ireland's first ecovillage and meets the Tinkers Bubble and Kings Hill communities in Somerset.

Join her for these explorations of ecovillages and more in Ecovillage Pioneers!

Create a Low Energy Home: Join the Passive House Revolution!

Passive House Revolution catches you up to all of the most important developments in efficient building and home design over the last 20 years.

Applying an innovative combination of construction and retrofitting techniques, and making certain materials and orientation decisions, a home or building can reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 80%.

Because of this enormous built in energy savings, the Passive House creates an exceptional return on investment from both an environmental and financial perspective.

You'll see a clear comparison in energy use between the typical and the low-energy passive house.

Could you imagine reducing your energy use by up to 80%?

In this timely film you will meet and witness the work of some of the leading builders and architects in this field. This includes Wolfgang Feist, the creator of the Passive House standard, and Katrin Klingenberg, who first brought passive house to the United States from Germany.

You will see homes across North America being retrofitted to this amazing energy efficient standard, and what satisfied owners think afterwards. Imagine living in a cold climate and not even requiring a furnace to stay toasty warm? This film shows you how!

Buildings use nearly 50% of the energy in North America. Thankfully we can start to address our energy costs and CO2 emissions with technology and methods that are available today, and the information in the Passive House Revolution leads the way.

Within Reach is a film documenting one resilient couple’s 6,500 mile bicycling journey across the United States in search of sustainable communities.

Mandy and Ryan gave up their corporate jobs and houses to travel thousands of miles in search of a new home, while also looking within.

One of the most important questions facing the world today is “Can humans live sustainably?” This film answers this in a resounding way – Yes!

Meet people from around the country showing that there might just be a better way we can live together on this planet. It is not only possible, it is already underway!

A New We is a film that enlightens, inspires, and spreads hope — for a new world and A New We.

A New We is a two-hour documentary that profiles 10 European intentional communities with a core commitment to sustainability.

See what is possible for the future of humanity and all life on the planet. People's lives in this film are more motivated by imagination, vision, respect, passion, and cooperation than by economic forces and social expectations.

“Every once in a while, a film comes along that can transform the way we live. A New We by the Austrian filmmaker Stefan Wolf is such a film.” - Will M. Tuttle, Ph.D., author, The World Peace Diet

In these 10 communities, the creative solutions to many social, environmental and economic challenges exemplify the nearly infinite capacity for human-, community- and self-development.

Explore communities from eight different countries, ranging from large to small, spiritual to secular, brand new to well established. Find out what’s happening on the cutting edge of sustainable communities.

Featured Ecovillages and Communities include:

Sieben Linden - Germany
Schloss Tonndorf - Germany
Krishna Valley - Hungary
Damanhur - Italy
Schloss Glarisegg - Switzerland
La Borie Noble - France
Valle de Sensaciones - Spain
Matavenero - Spain
Tamera - Portugal
Finca Tierra - Canary Island

Voices of Cohousing: Building Small Villages in the City
A Documentary by Matthieu Lietaert
2007; 59 minutes

One of today's biggest paradoxes is that half of the world's population lives in urban or suburban surroundings, yet many feel lonely and do not know their neighbors. But what if we could live differently?

Voices of Cohousing is a documentary that takes a look at and interviews 14 pioneering cohousing communities in Europe. Each group offers unique contributions to designing improved urban living.

Imagine a few dozen families and friends who came together to build a neighborhood from the ground up? Traffic could be kept out, and more nature, public spaces, buildings, and resources could be shared.

Hear directly from people who live in cohousing communities, from a variety of backgrounds and ages, as they share personal experiences and community stories of challenge and triumph.

Interested to live in a community, or curious about alternatives to the mainstream? 'Voices of Cohousing: Building Small Villages in the City' is a film that will provide inspiration and guidance!

All the narration and interviews are in English. Voices of Cohousing features a variety of cohousing members of many different backgrounds and ages tell the engaging and inspiring stories of their lives in community.

Seeking the Good Life in America – Alternative Ways to Live Sustainably

Join Joy on her journey to visit intentional communities as she searches for a place to call home.

Follow along on a road trip with her for a personal glimpse into her adventure visiting three well-established Virginia based intentional communities: Acorn, Twin Oaks, and Light Morning.

Seeking the Good Life in America is a personal and accessible story, without preaching, prescribing, or over analyzing. Witness early explorations stepping out of more mainstream life and into alternative cultures, and see how one can be uniquely nurtured or challenged by each community.

Experience Visiting a Community

Seeking the Good Life in America feels like a good community tour: stimulating, heart-opening, thought provoking, and a little giddy.

The film’s style is unpretentious and light, with professional quality, and a warm and personal narrator’s voice. The combination of stubborn grit and self-aware humor gives you a sense of the likable woman behind the camera, and helps you experience her sometimes awkward shift into community settings that often require more active engagement than usual.

While some films about visiting communities feature key figures and talking heads from each community, this film shows you visiting a community from a visitor’s point of view. This includes conversations and tours with community members orienting her, interns, and others visiting communities. Experience an especially genuine look at what visiting a community is really like.

Seeking the Good Life in America
Produced by Outside of the Box Media

Imagine a network of hosts and guests who take it upon themselves to make the world more generous and open for adventure. Imagine people from all continents meeting together, sharing meals, sharing each others cultures and homes.

One Couch at a Time follows the journey of “Couch Surfing Evangelist” Alexandra Liss as she travels the world through 6 continents and 21 countries over a period of 7 months.

Visions of Utopia documents and profiles 7 diverse intentional communities in the United States.

Have an inside look at what it is like to live in intentional communities from people who are doing it.

Get "up close and personal" while you listen to members tell their stories, joys, laughs, and struggles in their own words.

Includes a fascinating brief history of the last 2,500 years of intentional communities, plus insights into what works and what doesn't, and an exploration of what holds communities together.

Profiles of 7 contemporary communities include:

Ananda Village (Nevada City CA)
Breitenbush Hot Springs (Detroit OR)
Camphill Special School (Glenmoore PA)
Earthaven (Black Mountain NC)
Nyland Cohousing (Lafayette CO)
Purple Rose (San Francisco CA)
Twin Oaks (Louisa VA)

Visions of Utopia II documents life in 10 diverse communities in the United States. Learn what is like to live, work, and play in communities, directly from people who are doing it.

Profiles of communities include:

Catholic Worker’s House (San Antonio TX)
Community Alternatives & Fraser Common Farm (Vancouver & Aldergrove BC)
The Farm (Summertown TN)
Ganas (Staten Island NY)
Goodenough (Seattle WA)
Hearthaven (Kansas City MO)
Miccosukee Land Co-op (Tallahassee FL)
N Street Cohousing (Davis CA)
Remote Hamlet (CA)
Sandhill Farm (Rutledge MO)