BAR HARBOR – As part of Earth Week celebrations, the College of the Atlantic is set to host a special screening of “Saving Walden’s World” on Wednesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. at the Center for Human Ecology, room 202, at its campus in Bar Harbor. This Maine-made documentary sent film crews around the world to better understand if gender-equal societies leave a smaller ecological footprint and enhance life-quality. With 13 international film festival awards, the independently produced film is getting noticed.
An additional screening of Saving Walden’s World will take place at the Maine Film Center in Waterville on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. for Earth Day. The five top entries of the Earth Day Film Challenge will be screened at 8:30 p.m. after the Q&A.
See www.savingwaldensworld.org for details.
“I think global audiences on the receiving end of US colonialism and militarism relate to my change of heart” says Merkel. “Out of engineering school, I was recruited to a position as a military engineer and later an arms dealer. I’d believed in all that stuff until I was in it.” The film’s lens is uniquely focused on women’s empowerment, land reform, poverty eradication and literacy, partially to make peace with his past, but also to find workable solutions for a world at the brink.
The film’s director Jim Merkel has formative ties to COA and Mount Desert Island. His parents started a campground on the “quiet side” in Tremont in the 1970s and his late brother Paul attended high school in Bar Harbor. Later, as an author and professor Merkel states, “COA was a mythical place in the world of sustainability.” During his tenure as Dartmouth College’s sustainability coordinator, he made several visits to COA, but it was the students who left a strong imprint on him. “As an educator, time with engaged youth is about as good as it gets.”
As a multicultural journey, Merkel travels freely by bike, bus, train and tractor through Kerala, Cuba and Slovenia each time returning to Belfast, Maine. His camera finds the sounds, colors, aromas of a non-sensationalized daily life full of empowered women. The slapping of clothes being washed by a man, the netting of fish, the plucking of beans, all hint to social well-being and ecological balance contrasted against hyper-consumerism or authoritarian dystopias.
If cultures with a fraction of our wealth can offer women universal higher education, healthcare, maternity leave, childcare and reproductive freedom, it takes away many excuses for the sad state of women’s equality in the US. These broad encompassing slates of women’s rights have delivered lower child poverty, lower infant mortality, lower maternal mortality, longer lives and even lower abortion rates, while more fully respecting women.
“Saving Walden’s World” is about solutions. But Merkel is quick to point out, “Our world is facing an incredibly unhinged force that is trying to squelch our humanity while giving a green light to our most destructive impulses. This is no time to take our eyes off the prize.” When asked what that prize is, Merkel says “Co creating a world that works for all.”
This film is a father-son meditation that leaves a lasting impression. But Saving Walden’s World does something more than getting your attention — it inspires action at a time some might feel like crawling into a hole.
Recently, the impact team that is distributing the film into international markets recruited a new collaborator from the southern state of Kerala, India. Sharanya Sanil Kumar has deep skills in project management but also in reaching niche audiences aligned with the film’s message.
“As a young woman growing up in Kerala, I was surrounded by a culture where human connections were hardwired into society.” In her world, people supported one another in ways that went beyond mere transactions — helping a neighbor, sharing resources, and sustaining livelihoods. According to Kumar, “One could say we mirrored a barter-like economy. We were untouched by commercialization; instead, small shops and vendors thrived in every nook and corner of our localities, and our lives were led by well-knit communities.”
Kerala is the only state in India that can proudly claim a 96 percent literacy rate. Here education was always accessible — the question was not if one was privileged or not to study, but about one’s own choice and will to be educated.
“‘Watching Saving Walden’s World’ made me realize the importance of being grateful for what we have in Kerala and what we risk losing. It was a wake-up call that pushes you towards the importance of balance between progress and sustainability,” Kumar shared.
Sustainability only begins when we stop looking elsewhere for solutions and start recognizing the wisdom in our own backyards.
Speaking of backyards, many community organizations have stepped forward to sponsor this event including: Alliance for Sears Island, College of the Atlantic, CREATS International, Girls with Books, Kerala Forum on United Nations Academic Impact, Mabel Wadsworth Center, Maine Film Association, Maine Media, Midcoast Earth Protectors, Peace and Justice Group of Waldo County, Sierra Club of Maine, The Friends of Harriet Hartley, Upstream Watch, WERU and World View Productions.
