Belfast Maine’s Colonial Theatre will host local author and filmmaker Jim Merkel May 14, at 6:15 p.m. and the public is invited to hear how and why the documentary Saving Walden’s World was created.

The documentary is a project with a long life, both in development and screenings, as it is now a featured selection at several global film festivals, including the Puerto Aventuras International Film Festival, Love & Hope International Film Festival, in Barcelona, Spain; Crown Wood International Film Festival in Kolkata, West Bengal, India; and the Five Continents International Film Festival in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.

This is a opportunity to meet the filmmaker and see why the film is garnering international attention. Saving Walden’s World was inspired by Merkel’s experience as a young arms dealer witnessing the impact on ‘enemy’ countries.

Saving Walden’s World looks at what is working today and how these solutions can shape a better tomorrow. Director and writer Merkel weaves a story that spans his early personal experience as a military subcontractor and his later studies of three countries where non-capitalist cultures thrive. 

“Having monitored the progress of the documentary for over three years: locals and the Colonial staff alike are looking forward to finally screening Saving Walden’s World in Waldo County,” said theatre director Kyle Walton, in a news release. 

Saving Walden’s World is a visual poem and a promise from a father to the world’s children, a promise that provides a glimmering future within reach, if there is a shift in thinking, the release said.

Common threads between the communities Jim visits on this brief cinematic tour include:

Empowerment of women overall and specifically:

Birth Control and Body Rights: Understanding that sense of purpose that comes from established roles and freeing women to go beyond the role of mother and homemaker has transformed countries like Slovenia, Cuba and Kerala, India. This role-shift is a secondary effect of adopting birth control as  perhaps the most basic empowerment for women—control of their reproductive rights and bodies.

Collaboration Instead of Competition: Merkel examines the towns and villages where women are actively shaping society as contributors, collaborators and inventors. Whether it is through trade, cooperative enterprise or even developing new financial micro-lending tools better suited to localized economies, women are at the forefront of transforming life in villages and small cities where capitalism lacks a historical basis of success. This lack of capitalism coupled with free higher education seems to invite invention and creative solutions.

Focus on Happiness rather than Possessions: While many countries might be deemed poor by capitalist standards, these same countries might wonder at the unhappy realm of comparative materialism and chronic debt associated with capitalist countries. Saving Walden’s World gives us a chance to see a world view that is largely absent from media or education and is in fact, quite the opposite of many government programs. (Jim’s early career found himself trying to stop these very countries from independence—an ironic thread woven through this documentary.)

The May 14 evening takes place at 163 High St, Belfast with tickets available here

Details: savingwaldensworld.org

SWW trailer: https://tinyurl.com/29fhuh2a