Just finished watching the movie: Off the Grid: Life On The Mesa
It’s a movie that want’s to be about what the real American Dream is about, but ends up [at least in my case] to be just very disturbing.

Short movie description:

Twenty-Five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a loose-knit community of eco-pioneers, teenage runaways, war veterans and drop-outs, live on the fringe and off the grid, struggling to survive with little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique vision of the American dream…

Longer description: http://techyum.com/2007/09/off_the_grid_live_on_the_mesa.html

You can watch the movie online at SnagFilms: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/off_the_grid_life_on_the_mesa/

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0920467/

Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way let’s see what I’ve got from it:

I see it a  movie about people with mental illness or extreme misfits who are totally alienated from society. Although they are misfits/mentally ill they still have a high degree of patriotism. To top that the way that think and act is not very different from your regular John Doe. C’mon: you are against the system but you are still ‘brainwashed’ by what it has taught you? That’s just plain wrong.

You’re proud that you can blow up things and smoke weed all you want. But apart from that, what else do you do?

The most sad part was that some of these people choose to raise their children / have children. I agree that once you have 18+ years you’re free to do whatever you want [and pay the price for that] but to destroy innocent lives, that’s just wrong.

The location:

The movie is very vague about the location where it is shot. To say New Mexico, doesn’t mean anything. Maybe they are afraid they will have a wave of hippies free thinkers come their way and ruin what they’ve built with so much work weed.

I myself was a little curious about the location, so I did a little “research” and came up with this:

The area defined may be that west of Taos, NM, generally that west of the Rio Grande river to US 285, Tres Piedras, NM to the north to Carson, NM to the south.

Within that general area there are specific spots, such as the Greater World Earthship community just east of US 64 shortly after crossing the Rio Grande river. Also the alternative community of Tres Orejas, NM, which is south of there.

There is quite a spectrum from multi-million dollar Earthship houses with every modern convenience, to those entirely owner built, over time as funds were available, and modest by most any standard. Water is one of the limiting factors and due the very deep ground water levels in many areas many residents do rely on roof top collection and cisterns for all their water needs. Solar is very practical in this region; some residents have the means to install solar systems capable of generating all the electricity they could ever want, others make do with one small solar panel and a car battery, and not much more than a table lamp, until they can afford more equipment.

Splendid or not, distinctly different from common American suburbia.”

Google Maps map is here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=36.499908,-105.810184&sspn=0.051126,0.11158&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=36.458845,-105.615005&spn=0.409221,0.892639&z=11 (read instructions above and start peeking at the map between US285 and  US64)

And some “nice” pictures (probably not of the “community”  I saw in the movie, but close enough):

http://www.2pks.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page1.html

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