TINY: A Story About Living SmallThe SXSW FIlm Festival is world-renowned for its ability to introduce new and fresh voices. SXSW Eco is thrilled to present two documentary features selected by SXSW Film to premiere at this year’s festival.

This post is dedicated to TINY: A Story About Living Small. TINY documents the nation’s burgeoning Tiny House movement through the eyes of Merete and Chris, a couple who set out to build their own tiny house from scratch although they lack building experience. Through homes stripped down to their essentials, the film raises questions about sustainability, good design and the changing American Dream. TINY is playing three times during the course of the SXSW Film Festival. The screenings are open to badgeholders, wristband holders and individuals who purchase a ticket at the theater the day of the screening (as capacity allows).

Don’t miss this film or your chance to see a Tiny house in person at their world premiere!

Following is a short interview that SXSW Eco conducted with the directors Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith.

In the film, Chris, you say you always wanted to live in Colorado. Did this dream always include a Tiny house? How did you first become acquainted with the Tiny movement?

Christopher: I've been in love with the West since I was a little kid, when my dad would pile our whole family into the car each summer and drive us out to Nevada to visit his family. I feel at home in the mountains and in the desert, and I had a lifelong dream of making a home in Colorado that I could always come back to. Right before I turned 30, I decided to buy a plot of land in the mountains and make this dream a reality. It was a pretty impulsive decision.

Meanwhile, I first heard about Tiny Houses a few years ago, when I saw a photo of Dee Williams (who is actually one of the characters in our film) on the cover of Yes! Magazine. That photo planted a seed, but I never thought I would actually build a Tiny House myself. When I bought the land in Colorado and began researching options for building a small cabin, I realized that my county (and most counties in America) had a minimum house size baked into its building codes, of 600 square feet. There's no way I would have been able to build a house of that size on my own, and I didn't have the savings to take on that kind of project. That's when the lightbulb went off, and I realized that Tiny Houses are built on wheels to get around these exact codes. My Tiny House counts as a temporary structure, so traditional building codes don't apply.

Once I started building my house I became more involved in the Tiny House community online, through all of the blogs and building tutorials that people post to help others through the DIY process. As we met these people and began learning their stories, Merete and I knew that our story wouldn't be complete without including the story of this movement and other people who are downsizing for different reasons all around the country.

Your film makes Tiny house living seem very accessible (and inspiring!) by showcasing a variety of Tiny house dwellers and their dwellings. Did you intend to make this film as a sort of “how-to” guide?

Merete: I think more than a "How To" guide, the film is meant to say "This is Possible!" We learned about building and downsizing as we went along, and captured some of those mistakes on film, so the point of the film isn't so much to teach people how to take on a similar project, but to plant the seed of an idea. One of our characters in the film, Ann Holley, who built a Tiny House in Colorado, talks about "seeing life as an experiment." So many of the people that we profile in the film have made creative choices about their lifestyles and the types of structures that they live in. We don't expect everyone who sees the film to walk out of the theater wanting to live in 120 square feet—that's not realistic for a lot of people—but we do hope that people will start to ask questions about how they can benefit the environment, and their community, and their own happiness and quality of life.

TINY provides an overview of the Tiny house movement and also documents your efforts to build a tiny house from the ground up. What advice would you give others who are interested in undertaking such a project?

Christopher: One of the biggest things I learned as a result of taking on this project is that anything is possible, if you break it down into a series of smaller steps. The small steps become manageable, and then suddenly the greater project is manageable. You just have to start. Looking back, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no idea how much work it would be to build a house from scratch. But not knowing that was perhaps the biggest blessing. Once I started, there was no going back. And I was fortunate to have the support and help of my friends and family. That's one of the biggest things that I learned: that I couldn't, and didn't want to, build a house alone.

Are you both living in your tiny house full-time? How has it changed your perspective on consumption and material culture?

Merete: The Tiny House was built as a long-term base that we know we can always go back to. In the film we ask a lot of questions about Home—what is it? How do we know when we find? What makes a place feel like home? And those are questions that we were asking throughout the process of building the house and making this film, and we're still asking them. I've been living in New York City for the past 6 months, which is close to my family. Christopher's been splitting his time between Colorado and New York, while we've been working on post-production for the film.

Though we haven't gone through the process of downsizing all of our possessions into a Tiny House, as our characters have done, the process of building the house and making the film has definitely helped me to think about 'things' in a different way. I'm a minimalist, but the stuff that I do own, I really appreciate! The space that I live in and the things that I surround myself with are important to me because they influence the way that I feel. But I've realized that they're not as important as the people that I surround myself with, and my daily experiences. Living in a small space puts the focus on doing things, rather than having things. Realizing that has had a hugely positive impact on my life.

TINY: A Story About Living Small has its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on Saturday, March 9th at 5PM at the Rollins Theatre. Other showtimes can be found at schedule.sxsw.com.

Read about all the events SXSW Eco is taking part in during SXSW here. The SXSW FIlm Festival is world-renowned for its ability to introduce new and fresh voices. SXSW Eco is thrilled to present two documentary features selected by SXSW Film to premiere at this year’s festival.

This post is dedicated to TINY: A Story About Living Small. TINY documents the nation’s burgeoning Tiny House movement through the eyes of Merete and Chris, a couple who set out to build their own tiny house from scratch although they lack building experience. Through homes stripped down to their essentials, the film raises questions about sustainability, good design and the changing American Dream. TINY is playing three times during the course of the SXSW Film Festival. The screenings are open to badgeholders, wristband holders and individuals who purchase a ticket at the theater the day of the screening (as capacity allows).

Don’t miss this film or your chance to see a Tiny house in person at their world premiere!

Following is a short interview that SXSW Eco conducted with the directors Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith.

In the film, Chris, you say you always wanted to live in Colorado. Did this dream always include a Tiny house? How did you first become acquainted with the Tiny movement?

Christopher: I've been in love with the West since I was a little kid, when my dad would pile our whole family into the car each summer and drive us out to Nevada to visit his family. I feel at home in the mountains and in the desert, and I had a lifelong dream of making a home in Colorado that I could always come back to. Right before I turned 30, I decided to buy a plot of land in the mountains and make this dream a reality. It was a pretty impulsive decision.

Meanwhile, I first heard about Tiny Houses a few years ago, when I saw a photo of Dee Williams (who is actually one of the characters in our film) on the cover of Yes! Magazine. That photo planted a seed, but I never thought I would actually build a Tiny House myself. When I bought the land in Colorado and began researching options for building a small cabin, I realized that my county (and most counties in America) had a minimum house size baked into its building codes, of 600 square feet. There's no way I would have been able to build a house of that size on my own, and I didn't have the savings to take on that kind of project. That's when the lightbulb went off, and I realized that Tiny Houses are built on wheels to get around these exact codes. My Tiny House counts as a temporary structure, so traditional building codes don't apply.

Once I started building my house I became more involved in the Tiny House community online, through all of the blogs and building tutorials that people post to help others through the DIY process. As we met these people and began learning their stories, Merete and I knew that our story wouldn't be complete without including the story of this movement and other people who are downsizing for different reasons all around the country.

Your film makes Tiny house living seem very accessible (and inspiring!) by showcasing a variety of Tiny house dwellers and their dwellings. Did you intend to make this film as a sort of “how-to” guide?

Merete: I think more than a "How To" guide, the film is meant to say "This is Possible!" We learned about building and downsizing as we went along, and captured some of those mistakes on film, so the point of the film isn't so much to teach people how to take on a similar project, but to plant the seed of an idea. One of our characters in the film, Ann Holley, who built a Tiny House in Colorado, talks about "seeing life as an experiment." So many of the people that we profile in the film have made creative choices about their lifestyles and the types of structures that they live in. We don't expect everyone who sees the film to walk out of the theater wanting to live in 120 square feet—that's not realistic for a lot of people—but we do hope that people will start to ask questions about how they can benefit the environment, and their community, and their own happiness and quality of life.

TINY provides an overview of the Tiny house movement and also documents your efforts to build a tiny house from the ground up. What advice would you give others who are interested in undertaking such a project?

Christopher: One of the biggest things I learned as a result of taking on this project is that anything is possible, if you break it down into a series of smaller steps. The small steps become manageable, and then suddenly the greater project is manageable. You just have to start. Looking back, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no idea how much work it would be to build a house from scratch. But not knowing that was perhaps the biggest blessing. Once I started, there was no going back. And I was fortunate to have the support and help of my friends and family. That's one of the biggest things that I learned: that I couldn't, and didn't want to, build a house alone.

Are you both living in your tiny house full-time? How has it changed your perspective on consumption and material culture?

Merete: The Tiny House was built as a long-term base that we know we can always go back to. In the film we ask a lot of questions about Home—what is it? How do we know when we find? What makes a place feel like home? And those are questions that we were asking throughout the process of building the house and making this film, and we're still asking them. I've been living in New York City for the past 6 months, which is close to my family. Christopher's been splitting his time between Colorado and New York, while we've been working on post-production for the film.

Though we haven't gone through the process of downsizing all of our possessions into a Tiny House, as our characters have done, the process of building the house and making the film has definitely helped me to think about 'things' in a different way. I'm a minimalist, but the stuff that I do own, I really appreciate! The space that I live in and the things that I surround myself with are important to me because they influence the way that I feel. But I've realized that they're not as important as the people that I surround myself with, and my daily experiences. Living in a small space puts the focus on doing things, rather than having things. Realizing that has had a hugely positive impact on my life.

TINY: A Story About Living Small has its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on Saturday, March 9th at 5PM at the Rollins Theatre. Other showtimes can be found at schedule.sxsw.com.

Read about all the events SXSW Eco is taking part in during SXSW here.