Radically Simple

Engineer, teacher, and author Jim Merkel is a poster boy for “the simple life” (think solar cooker, not Paris Hilton): he gathers his own water, grows his own food, and builds his own detached outhouse on his “homestead” in Barre, VT. Jan Cannon's Radically Simple interweaves footage of Merkel in his daily routine together with excerpts from his talks (at public libraries) and workshops (at conferences and out of his home) on the individual and global benefits of sustainability, as well as steps individuals can take to reduce their environmental footprints (Merkel tosses out some numbers and formulae, but the specifics are not covered in any depth). We also see Merkel biking (sans helmet) on his 20-mile commute to work at Dartmouth College, where he serves as the “sustainability coordinator.” While Merkel is unquestionably an admirable role model in many respects, Cannon's half-hour-plus profile feels more like a fan video than a probing documentary, jumping in scattershot fashion from Merkel doing this to saying that (and his numerous references to “my book” make this seem, at times, like a promotional piece) without much sense of order or follow-through. For example, when Merkel tells a group of starry-eyed student acolytes that single-child families should be part of the footprint-reduction plan, the subject begs for a much wider discussion (which might have occurred, but we don't see much of it onscreen). An uneven portrait of an environmental ascetic, this is an optional purchase. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)