Off the Grid

The United States is struggling with a serious recession and the global financial system has been shaken to its foundations, but it's not like the Americans to throw in the towel. In this road movie, the filmmaker visits some of the places in the United States where people are experimenting with small-scale projects. The town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts has introduced a new currency. It works well when paying for local products, but the bicycle repair man realizes that he has become very dependent on Chinese imports. In the Texan capital of Austin, an independent radio personality gets inspiration from the spirit of the Wild West. He encourages his audience to oppose the federal government and megalomaniac corporations such as Walmart, which suck tight-knit communities dry and turn them into ghost towns. The people of Colorado Springs traditionally distrust the government, but their aversion to paying taxes turns out to have a negative effect on the collective facilities - who will take care of the parks when the private sector runs out of money? We also witness various symptoms of the recession, such as the removal of asphalt from roads, the destruction of empty buildings, and the encampments for the homeless around the big cities. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)