First Hit: A surprisingly engaging film with an interesting concept about what one family discovered while attempting to live without negatively impacting the environment.
One of the truths of this film is that any one person has a low probability of dramatically affecting global change in the world.
But one can change themselves and through that discovery others may gain and grow from observing them. Colin Beavan is a New York City resident and for a living writes history books. His wife, Michelle Colin, also writes for a business magazine.
Colin decides that he wants to see if he can live one year and have no environmental impact (or virtually none) and write a book about his experience. His wife decides to go along with it which also meant that their very young daughter was also part of this experiment.
I cannot remember and name all the major criteria they followed during this year long experiment, however some of them are: No buying anything new (could only purchase used stuff). No disposable diapers. No TV. Only buy food that is locally grown (within a few hundred miles of NYC). No taxis, buses, buses, or airplanes (Bicycles, walking and kick scooters are the transportation mode). No toilet paper, No Starbucks (triple shot Iced Venti coffees) and no eating out.
Then after 6 months, no electricity. The wonderful thing about this film is you get one on one time with both Colin and Michelle as they talk about the struggles and joys of reducing their carbon footprint.
Colin learns early on that food choices get dramatically reduced when he cannot buy the type of vegetables he normally would buy because in winter there are only root vegetables grown in New York.
Michelle laments early on about not being able to buy clothing and purses on a whim but also shows awareness of how buying the newest thing isn’t such a big and important deal. I loved watching Michelle struggle openly about numerous subjects and how her innate joy and optimism came to the forefront in the end.
Their daughter really enjoyed the extra time with her parents and watching the family wash clothes together in the tub was priceless.
I commend Colin and Michelle for taking on this project and it has inspired me to be even more cognizant of my own meager consumption and to look for ways to be more planet friendly. In this way they accomplished more than their original goal because everyone who sees this film may see ways they can be more conscious about how they consume. The inexpensive way this documentary was shot was perfect and fit the mood of the subject. I also appreciated the open and frank discussions Michelle and Colin shared with the audience.
Overall: This was a very interesting and fascinating film which can have long term impacts on anyone who sees it.