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SMALL FOOTPRINT

VÄIKE JALAJÄLG

By Margit LILLAK

Documentary - Post-Production 2018

„Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.“
(Margaret Mead)

The only reality we can ever change is our personal one. Only from there comes the change in the bigger picture.

- Year of production
- 2018
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- ESTONIA
- Director(s)
- Margit LILLAK
- Producer(s)
- Johanna TRASS (Allfilm)
- Synopsis
- This is a story tackling big human issues. Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we have in the post-industrial society. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation.
  A group of 12 grownups no longer finds it reasonable. Together with their children they decide to step out of society as we know it by founding a conscious eco-community. They call it "Small Footprint".
  Deconstructing the very basic pillars of life starting from nuclear family, living arrangement, education, food and energy, waste handling, etc, aspiring for a noble idea of changing the world to a better place. They start by trying to shrink sustainably and build non-violent, loving relationships with fellow community members.
  The group-members make a down-payment and purchase an abandoned manor lot with 33 hectars of land in the middle of Eastern-European nowhere. After moving in head on heals, they discover that the property is much in ruins, leaking and rotting on every end. Besides some discover to their surprise that the down-payment has not been equal on many ends, therefore the community lacks reserves to repair the housing.
  For some members it is an emotional rollercoaster full of drama, for others a speedway for personal development, for others just a comfortable arrangement for running a business working from home with children taken care of by fellow commune-members.
  You can go to the cloister up on the mountain and achieve complete peace of mind, but how do you do it with small kids, a day-job and leaking roofs?
  In the world we live in today, where the apocalypse is learking on every end, media stains our minds with news about wars and conflict, the world struggles with climate change, forthcoming energy-, food- and water- crises, perhaps its the only way to adapt for a human and survive the crises by joining forces in a non-violent, sustainable way?
  How they will be able to build this new world, without conflict, without abusing the earth, and setting an idealistic example to the rest of the world- time will tell. And time we have.