22 Mar Within Reach: Film on Intentional Communities

If you could do anything you wanted to and money did not matter at all, what would you be doing?



Ryan and Mandy are these two people who met when they arrived at a Christian sustainability mission in Central America in 1999.



They were part of a group of college students who got a chance to live very simply for a summer. Ten years later, still living far away from each other, they got in touch and started thinking about that summer and discovered that living in an intentional community that is bent on living sustainably was a passion they both shared.



A few months later they sold all of their worldly possessions, bought a tandem bicycle, and set out on what would become a 6,500 mile trip across the U.S., visiting 100 intentional communities.  On the sticky topic between two friends concerning whether to get one or two tents she said, "well, I think you're pretty hot."  And he replied, "well, I think you're pretty hot, too."  And they decided one tent would be just fine.



I met them at around 4:45pm at the Sustain Center. Hardly anyone else was there. They were really bummed out because the event coordinator had scammed them and ran off with the money they were supposed to be paid.  There was no soundstage, projector, or soundsystem or chairs or catering service.  Nothing.  Ryan and Mandy didn't even have the money to get home.



But this is Austin, Baby!  When the cow manure gets deep, and a project needs nutrition, we fertilize!  Another couple that has been crossing the the country in a van making humorous videos about everything you ever will need to know about gardening, alternative power, and living sustainably, pulled up.  They had solar powered batteries and a projector. Located on the Sustain Center's property is  a huge barn. We hung a sheet on the wall, set up the projector, gathered up some benches, and got ready for what would be the premier viewing (even by Ryan and Mandy) of the nearly finished documentary. What was going to be a carbon intensive event became an eco-friendly hootenanny with percussion instruments, bails of hey, a few benches, and 40 to 50 very engaged people and a few dogs.  



But first we saw a couple of 5 minute pieces on what Swix and Travis's Eco Jaunt Dot Org . Wow! Unbelievably cool!



Then it was on to Ryan and Mandy's incredible journey. OMG, words can hardly describe this film. Who wouldn't become fully alive in a place like The Ecovillage at Ithaca . The biggest roar (and there were several from this group of amazing Austinites watching this film in a big ass barn), from the crowd came when they were interviewing a 8 to 10 year old boy who was talking about his life as a tiger in the woods and his special magic wand. At one point, Ryan or Mandy said to this boy, "so you really get to use your imagination in the woods, huh?"  and the little boy's face went slack and serious. His reply? "It's not imagination! I am a tiger and this is a real wand!"



I was amazed at how cool life in intentional community has evolved into being. These communities are not the communes from the 60's! There are hundreds of them across the country.  A young woman whose name is Catherine made the trip with Ryan and Mandy from Dancing Rabbit Farm in Missouri, the community Ryan and Mandy chose out of the 100 they visited. Apparently you can manage to build a simple, natural home for about 3 to 10 thousand dollars. They have a robust bartering system between the food co-op and every kind of service human beings could offer one another.  



Catherine provides pre-school child care, does painting on the most worn out pieces of wood she can find and works in the gardens. She is hoping to construct a kiln for the purpose of creating ceramics. We talked for a while at the Bouldin Cafe. She was radiantly happy about her life. She went to Dancing Rabbit to visit and three days later decided that she was never going to leave.  



Check out the trailer for Ryan and Mandy's "Within Reach"



The final applause and hollers went on for two minutes after the film ended. And what did we decide to do afterward?  We passed the hat for the gas money to get Ryan and Mandy back home, of course. Intentional Community; people supporting people to support our planet. Safe journeys Ryan and Mandy. We will find a way to support your incredible film.