Release:
2015
Director/Writing Credits:
Jeremy Beasley
Producer: Chris Kamen
Editing: Florence Mathilde Holmes
Cast:
Ben Campbell, Nikki Codding, Mitchell Mast, Karen Parramore
Running Time: 67 minutes
Another in
the collection of Netflix’s documentaries that boards on advertising, this
sixty-seven minute piece follows the lives of four people who have just entered
into the Tiny House movement, the centre of which (if this film is anything to
go by) appears to be Portland Oregon. Portlandia
viewers and fans of comedian Maria Bamford’s ‘Ask Me About My New God!’ special
will appreciate the logic of this geography.
For Ben
Campbell and couple Nikki Codding and Mitchell Mast, it’s ostensibly a
cost-effective way to get out from under crippling student debt. Karen Parramore, on the other hand, having encountered
economic difficulties for different reasons (which we’ll get to later) also
decided to go the tiny house route. She
is also apart from the other tiny house adventurers, in that she has already
completed her project when we meet her.
The director has therefore covered the various stages of these projects,
from the humble beginnings of empty frames, to an individual who has spent a
couple of years living the tiny house life.
To this
writer the idea of the tiny house movement is fascinating. Romantically speaking, the idea of paring
back to the bare essentials, appeals in a big way. This collection of individuals had virtually
no previous experience in building or DIY before starting their projects. They all take varying approaches on to how
they go about building minimal living experiences. Nikki and Mitchell seem to want to plough
through for the most part on their own, it seemingly being a matter of pride
for these self-proclaimed perfectionists.
Ben takes that particular road initially, before deciding to reach out
to, amongst others, his step-father, the tiny house community and Dee Williams
(tiny house guru or Beatle) to move his project forward.
Fifty year
old Karen made her dream come true with the help of a friend. Her dream involved the nightmare of a friend’s
struggle with addiction and stealing from Karen’s various accounts to feed his
habit. As she tells it, her friend
eventually sought help, earned his sobriety and in an attempt at redemption,
helped to make her tiny home a reality.
Tragically this story finishes with his relapse and a return to his old
ways, leaving Karen distraught. Having
decided to end the relationship she makes the trip to gather up her things,
only to find him dead in the bathroom, having taken his own life. Ben, a twenty-something who had inherited
fifty thousand dollars from his estranged father, carries that weight
throughout the film. He builds something
that will ultimately house him, from a significant tangible connection to
his dead father. It’s a theme that’s not
far from the front of his mind during the entire build process. Similarly Nikki dives into the world of
carpentry, linking the work on the tiny house with her relationship to her own
carpenter father, a man who apparently took her two places when he had custody
of her as a child, building sites and bars.
These back stories imbue the construction of the tiny home with a sense
of personal sacrifice almost as drastic as John Updike’s novel ‘Brazil’, where
nothing is gained without something being lost.
The cinematography
feels very firmly rooted in the hipster category, and the director could easily
be following a rag tag bunch of musicians across the States, with those dark tones that allude to feelings beneath. In that sense the film is very much like James
Marcus Haney’s ‘Austin to Boston’.
Although it must be said that the stories of ‘Small is Beautiful’ appear
more searching than the narcissism of the music world.
While the
movie does indeed broadly demonstrate a lot of what goes into building a tiny
house, it doesn’t go into minute detail.
Viewers used to informational DIY programmes, looking to pick up a few
tips along the way will be a little disappointed. While the houses are completed, or almost
complete in Nikki and Mitchell’s case by the time we reach the end credits, we
never really get a thorough tour of every nook and cranny. But watching this film and looking for that particular
angle is missing the point. This is a film
about a movement and essential to the heart of a great movement is a moving emotional
core.
