Intentional Communities Newsletter: February 20, 2012

Community Seekers DVD on Sale!

 
Of all the DVDs we carry about communities, Seeking the Good Life in America is the most personal and accessible. It doesn't feel like it has a heavy agenda―you don't feel steered or preached at, nor is this an attempt at being an objective eye analyzing the groups for study. Instead, you are invited to join filmmaker Joy Truskowski on her journey of communities as a companion as she searches for Home.

Truskowski essentially takes us on a road trip with her, letting us glimpse what she glimpses about three well-established Virginia communities: Acorn, Twin Oaks and Light Morning. The film's style is unpretentious and light, with professional quality images, and a personal narrator's voice. One of my favorite scenes has her turning the camera on herself as she learns to chop wood. The combination of stubborn grit and self-aware humor gives us a sense of the likable woman behind the camera, and helps you experience her sometimes awkward shift into a life that requires more active engagement. This is just one example of how the educational aspect of the film slides down easily as a result of her choices. It seems easy and casual, but I suspect what we are seeing is actually the result of some careful crafting and thought on Truskowski's part.

One of the interesting choices she made as a filmmaker is to mainly follow the people she interacted with most as a visitor, rather than emphasizing interviews with key people in leadership; the "talking-heads-delivering-planned-profundity" quotient is refreshingly low in this one. Instead, this is a film by a community seeker, seen largely through the eyes of fellow community seekers: visitors and interns get a large chunk of the air time. This makes for an especially genuine look at what visiting communities is really like, and how people were nurtured and challenged by each community in their early explorations stepping out of more mainstream life into alternative culture.

The result is a film that feels like a community tour—stimulating, heart-opening, thought provoking, and a little giddy. And somehow Truskowski manages to make it fresh without feeling naive.

Sale price held over from January: $13.50, a 10% discount from the regular price of $15.00.

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