LOCATION TO BE DETERMINED

Director: jimimerkel@gmail.com, +91 9207543121

Producer:santhirajasekhar@gmail.com, +91 96458 52870

Film Website: www.savingwaldensworld.org

Award-Winning Documentary Tours Kerala, India

The award-winning documentary film “Saving Walden’s World” is currently touring Kerala from Trivandrum to Alleppey until November 15. The film’s director Jim Merkel first came to Kerala in 1993 on an Earthwatch Fellowship to learn and experience the “Kerala Model” of development, shortcomings and all. The director returned in 2018 with an Emmy Award winning cinematographer, David Wright, and worked with a researcher from the Center for Development Studies, Santhi Rajasekhar, to explore the themes of women’s empowerment, sustainability and social justice in gods own country.

The documentary reveals the director’s own checkered past as a young arms dealer who discovers his work is harming families in less affluent societies. An ethical crisis is triggered leading to a decades-long quest of redemption. Determined to make the world a better place, Jim raises his son Walden, a budding scientist, in an off-the-grid homestead and wonders: could the very people his past-life’s work targeted, hold the keys to a sustainable planet?

A journey into “enemy” territory ensues, meeting powerful women who reshape society to

work for all. Far from affluent utopias, Kerala, Cuba and Slovenia offer women free college, access to contraception, maternity leave, childcare, dentistry and healthcare -- services unimaginable in much of Jim’s blue-collar America. As earth temperatures soar, the stakes couldn’t get higher.

Why did both Cuba and Kerala initiate land reform and literacy in the late 1950’s? Does universal higher education increase well-being and women’s participation in society? What role did Kudumbashree neighborhood groups play in enhancing human development? By some miracle Cuba, Kerala and Slovenia achieve well-being indices similar to advanced European social democracies while remaining with low ecological footprints.

The film screened at the Summit of the Future in NY city in September of this year as the United Nations discussed the stalled 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. As imperfect as the Kerala development model is, it offers nations both rich and poor hints as to how to eradicate poverty and empower women all while also not over-consuming, no simple feat.

In Pathanamthitta, women-led tailors produce backpacks for students and cloth bags inscribed with the phrase “avoid plastic.” In Idukki, women organic farmers sell fresh vegetables and deliver organic milk to the doorstep. In Alleppey women process turmeric and soap. These Kudumbashree enterprises take microfinance and peer lending to a level unheard of in the world.

Saving Walden’s World was recently selected for the Asian Film Festival in Hollywood, making it the 15th festival selection from which the documentary has received 8 awards.

This Kerala tour began as a brain-child of Pathanamthitta-born Saji Thomas of KFUNAI (the Kerala Forum on United Nations Academic Impact.) The film’s director, Jim Merkel has traveled to Kerala along with Saji for a whirlwind tour from October 24 – November 15, with a total of 24 screenings. See www.savingwaldensworld.org for detailed information on the tour and upcoming screenings. Tour schedule: