A feature film with permaculture in it! Any others out there?

My husband and I just watched Dare to Be Wild on Netflix.

Here is the trailer:



Here is the IMDB listing - BUT don't go there if you hate spoilers, because the title description has a spoiler right in it!  What a bad idea.  chuckle: Dare to Be Wild feature film on IMDB - has immediate spoiler

And here is an article interviewing the subject of the movie, Mary Reynolds, one of (or possibly the) youngest competitors in the Chelsea Flower show.  Telegraph interview of Mary Reynolds - contains spoilers

So Mary Reynolds is not the permaculturist exactly, though you might call her an instinctive one.  The co-star in the tale is the permaculturist as I saw it - Christy Collard of the UK.  In the film, the word permaculture is not mentioned, but I think it's obvious.

I don't want to give anything away in this first post.  We thought it was really good.  Please post comments below if you watch it.  Also, if you know of any other movies/books/stories (but not documentaries, as there are already threads for those) with permaculture in them, could you post?  I love a good list...  The only other thing I can think of at the moment is Dune.  :-D

Just finished 'Wild Wild Country' documentary on Netflix. It wasn't about permaculture per se, but there was a short section in Part 2 where it shows how the group turned hardscrabble Oregonian high desert into a beautiful fertile oasis. PermaCULTure at its finest..

Michael Adams wrote:Just finished 'Wild Wild Country' documentary on Netflix. It wasn't about permaculture per se, but there was a short section in Part 2 where it shows how the group turned hardscrabble Oregonian high desert into a beautiful fertile oasis. PermaCULTure at its finest..

Oh my gosh, hardehar har.  That took me a minute to understand.  Points to you for a permie-pun.

I am slowly watching wild Wild Country, too, but got a little tired of it.  That Sheela seems a megalomaniac to me.  And they are really dragging it out!  I'm not to the point where they have much built yet, which is what I'm the most curious about.  That group kind of messed things up for intentional communities in Oregon. Where I grew up in western Oregon, a group intending to form an intentional community bought a former retreat center and our community kind of went bonkers.  People kept fearing a "Rashneeshi-style takeover".  It was rather absurd, but prejudices die hard.

Did anyone else watch Dare to Be Wild?  Any honest reviews to give?  (Yeah, I liked it a ton, but feel totally free to ignore my possibly ridiculous enthusiasm.)

Thank you Kim!  I watched it because of your post.  I found the way they portrayed Mary to be very compelling.  She pulled me in with her love of nature, hawthorns (I just bought two :) ) and design.  Really made me want to reach into my creative skills and apply them to my landscape.  I've always loved the idea of a sanctuary garden and hers was so lovely....just wanted more edibles in it!  Garden spaces should have that feeling of communion with other species, that sort of feeling of the sacred if you know what I mean.  I found her character to be very energizing this way.  

I have to admit though, Christy's character was a total turn off for me.  I agree that he was the permaculturist, so it makes me sad to say that.  He just didn't have the human warmth factor....seemed cold and self important to me.  I'll likely watch this movie again.  On second watches after some reflection time I often completely change my mind.  I hope I do because I want my permaculturists to be warm lovely people!!!

Also, I enjoyed Wild Wild Country Michael, thank you.  I don't remember any of this in the news when it was happening so it was a super interesting watch.  Good reminder as to why so many permaculturists try to avoid injecting religion into their efforts.  

I'm hoping more movie suggestions come up....more fun things to watch!