Small is Beautiful is a feature-length documentary exploring the tiny house movement. It’s a collaboration between Australian filmmaker Jeremy Beasley and Oregon native Kelly Nardo.
This is not the first documentary to focus on tiny houses, however, after exploring what was out there, Beasley saw there was a gap. He explains:
“[Most films out there] seemed to be all about the aesthetics of tiny houses. I wanted to go deeper; I wanted an understanding of why people were making this choice, and how living tiny affects people’s lives.”
As the filmmakers point out, the lower costs associated with the tiny house life (building costs are typically less than a tenth of those of an average American house, and two thirds of tiny house people have no mortgage or credit card debt) give the occupant the freedom to pursue the life they want.
Small is Beautiful focuses more on what the tiny house lifestyle enables than on the houses themselves.
The project is a work in progress (Jeremy and Kelly are crowdfunding to complete it), but already the team has collected an impressive variety of stories from tiny house people throughout Oregon.
Take Karin for example, who has chosen to live tiny because it allows her to gift medical care to people one day every week – in line with her commitment to living in a gift economy.
Or Nikki and Mitchell, who are hoping their tiny house will allow them to trade the 9-5 for a different kind of life; one where they spend their time on life-sustaining activities like growing food for themselves and their community.
Read more about the people featured in Small is Beautiful here.
We’ll be looking forward to Small is Beautiful – definitely one to watch.
Small is Beautiful – A Tiny House Film – Pozible from Jeremy Beasley on Vimeo.