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Alone in the Wilderness
2004 · Film · documentary · 57 min
Directed by Dick Proenneke, Bob Swerer Jr., Bob Swerer Sr.
Dick Proenneke retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin in the wilderness at the base of the Aleutian Peninsula, in what is now Lake Clark National Park. Using color footage he shot himself, Proenneke traces how he came to this remote area, selected a homestead site and built his log cabin completely by himself. The documentary covers his first year in-country, showing his day-to-day activities and the passing of the seasons as he sought to scratch out a living alone in the wilderness.
20 positive5 neutralfrom 25 commenters
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26 comments on Hacker News
Alone in the wilderness is a great film too.
You might also like a documentary called Alone in the Wilderness, which tells the story of Dick Proenneke, a man who moved to the remote Twin Lakes region of Alaska in 1968 and lived alone in the wilderness for 30 years.
Proenneke built his own log cabin entirely by hand, using only simple tools (many of which he made himself), and filmed his daily life, including hunting, fishing, foraging, and crafting everything from scratch
The film, “Alone In the Wilderness” is terrific.
https://vimeo.com/767376634
I can watch Alone in the Wilderness on repeat. Such a relaxing film.
* The Parking Lot movie
* Carts of Darkness
* Alone In the Wilderness
Three documentaries (broadly) about interesting-but-regular people who don’t fit into society’s mold.
Honorable mention: Tickled
I believe you're referring to Richard Proenneke's documentary Alone in the Wilderness. He spent 30 years in a self built cabin off a lake in Alaska filming wildlife.
> After seeing the documentary "Alone in the wilderness" by Dick Proenneke
Indeed, both series of ''Alone In The Wilderness'' by Dick Proenneke are absolutely essential viewing for anyone wishing to build a log cabin or homestead completely from scratch, off-grid, with minimal modern tools. Proenneke filmed his trips in his light aircraft to Alaska.
https://www.dickproenneke.com/
> After seeing the documentary "Alone in the wilderness" by Dick Proenneke
Indeed, both series of ''Alone In The Wilderness'' by Dick Proenneke are absolutely essential viewing for anyone wishing to do build a log cabin or homestead completely from scratch, off-grid, with minimal modern tools.
https://www.dickproenneke.com/
The Youtube Description states the inspiration was this: "After seeing the documentary "Alone in the wilderness" by Dick Proenneke, I became completely obsessed with the idea...."
"I know my journey and I hope to inspire others the same way Dick Proenneke inspired me."
Similar to "Alone in the Wilderness" I recommend a recent doco series "The Last Alaskans". Unlike most recent reality/doco style shows it's not the usual melodramatic, exaggerated rubbish. The characters speak for themselves and its allowed to "breathe". The TV series is inspired by the book "The Final Frontiersman" by Heimo Korth. Heimo is one of the characters in the series.
Top 5
1. First Contact (1982) - Possibly the best documentary ever made https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085544/
2. Rivers and Tides (2001) - Beautiful meditation on the art of Andy Goldsworthy, with music by Fred Frith https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307385/
3. This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make (2002) - The story of Popcorn Sutton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA
4. Alone in the Wilderness (2004) - Mostly original footage and commentary by Richard Proenneke https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437806/
5. Apollo 11 (2019) - Narration-free documentary on the first moon landing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/
Bonus picks:
Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is a dramatization but an incredibly accurate one https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/
If mockumentaries count, everything by Christopher Guest is obligatory. There's also this short gem on the Centrifuge Brain Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w
Grizzly Man (2005) is not a mockumentary, but like most Herzog documentaries, it's not exactly straight https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/
Finally, I'm a huge fan of first-nuclear-era documentaries made by the U.S. government, e.g.
Army Nuclear Power Program (1963) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPWDMHH4rY4
SNAP 8 Reactor (1963) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82nCRWawfhQ
SNAPSHOT (1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9jI1Hdl5Yw
Remote Maintanence of Molten Salt Reactors (?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHT-w2x6dDg
and many more.
The World at War - BBC documentary series about WWII. Shows humanity simultaneously at it's best and worst.
The Vietnam War - Ken Burns documentary series. Very balanced and sobering take on the Vietnam war, events leading to the Vietnam war, and unrest in the US during that period.
The Fog of War - Errol Morris doc about Robert McNamara.
The Salt of the Earth - Doc about photographer Sebastião Salgado
Alone in the Wilderness - Dick Proenneke films himself building and living in a remote cabin in Alaska
Also can't go wrong with Adam Curtis.
I love documentaries, and these are my favourites. All very worth a watch.
- The Crash Reel
- McConkey
- Buck
- Apollo 11
- Carts of Darkness
- The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
- Samsara
- Baraka
- Brooklyn Castle
- Spellbound
- Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
- Crumb
- The Jinx
- The Art of Flight
- King of Kong
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Capturing the Friedmans
- OJ: Made in America
- The Barkley Marathons
- The Seven Five
- Murderball
- Unbranded
- Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee
- Big River Man
- Hoop Dreams
- Word Wars
- Free Solo
- Long Shot
- Meru
- Being Elmo
- All This Mayhem
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- The Cove
- Project Nim
- Alone in the Wilderness
- Behind the Curve
- The Dawn Wall
- Grizzly Man
- 13th
- Winnebago Man
- Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler
- Get Me Roger Stone
- Icarus
- 13th
- Koyaanisqatsi
- The Thin Blue Line
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Oklahoma City
- Virunga
- The Staircase
- Evil Genius
- Undefeated
- Betting on zero
Check out Alone in the Wilderness by Dick Proenneke. In the late 1960s he filmed himself building a cabin in Alaska and wrote a journal, which his brother later made into a film. Most or all of the film is on YouTube.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
This. Every time McCandless comes up - and bless him for his youthful misadventure - I think of the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.
It's one of my favorite films of all time, and have watched it numerous times. He had the right training and planning, knowledge, skills, equipment and support (a friend visisted regularly with supplies) to achieve it successfully.
I love that the film footage was recorded by himself, some of it is just gorgeous scenery. He demonstrates the hard work necessary to build everything for survival.
I've always thought of Dick Proenneke[1] as what McCandless could have/should have been. Despite attempting a similar thing (go detach from civilization as much as possible, though Proenneke didn't take it to the same extreme), Proenneke was actually prepared and talented in the kinds of crafts necessary to have a good life in the wilderness - guy was a crazy-good outdoorsman in general, on top of great carpentry/woodworking[2]/general jury-rigging.
The best part is that he took an 8mm camera and filmed a lot of his work, including building his cabin from almost entirely indigenous materials. Those films ended up as the (PBS-involved?) documentary Alone in the Wilderness[3].
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
[2] https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cabin.htm
[3] https://youtu.be/iYJKd0rkKss (partial)
Also, Proenneke's documentary "Alone in the Wilderness" is great too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
He does his own narration in the film ("Alone in the Wilderness") as well.
Dick Proenneke's Alone in the Wilderness is a wonderful TV show to watch if you're into this sort of DIY building joy. He starts with only a few tools and builds himself a little cabin in Alaska, narrating and filming the whole thing. Quite peaceful and inspiring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss
For those interested in this story, you may also like the documentary "Alone In The Wilderness" by PBS. It's a great story of a man that lived alone for 30 years in the Alaskan wilderness.
https://shop.pbs.org/alone-in-the-wilderness-dvd/product/ALWL401
Alone in the Wilderness and Part 2 are both very much worth watching, but he was resupplied periodically by plane in the summertime.
If you like this, you will also like the documentary "Alone in the Wilderness" -- see http://www.dickproenneke.com
if you're inspired by Thoreau, I recommend you check out Dick Proenneke's little film "Alone in the Wilderness".
First 10 minutes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss
The documentary is called "Alone in the Wilderness" - I highly, highly recommend it. His woodworking skills are hard to imagine.
Part 2 was just released in 2012, and PBS have said they will release Part 3 this year or next.
Outwardly it sounds like he lived a lonely existence, though in part 2 we learn his brother was a bush pilot in Alaska, and they would spend summers together flying around, camping and hiking.
Dick also received many visitors at his cabin.
I love shacks, too. Here are more good ones.
Willard Van Orman Quine - "Dad built himself a small "shack" as he called it to be as far away from the family noise as possible. That way he could work to his heart's content and not interfere with the noisy comings and goings of the likes of my brother and me and our friends. It was not wired for electricity, so when it was late or dark or stormy, he would light his kerosene lanterns and keep pounding away on his typewriter."
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger - Wrote warm, lyrical piano songs called Frösöblomster in a rustic house called "Sommarhagen" that he built on the island of Frösö.
Birgit Friggebo - In 1979 this Swedish Housing Minister changed the building codes to exempt structures under 15 square meters. Minimalist cabins ensued and are called "friggebods."
Gustav Mahler - Built a tiny composition house or "Komponierhäuschen" at the edge of a lake.
Cave Monasteries of Byzantine Cappadocia - VERY rudimentary, created by orthodox monks seeking Hesychasm.
Skellig Michael clocháns - beehive dwellings made of piled stones used by monks on cliffs on an island off of Ireland.
Ludwig Wittgenstein - built a cabin in Skjolden Norway in which to do his uncompromising philosophy. There are pictures and details of this cabin in the book "Ludwig Wittenstein: There where you are not."
Toru Takemitsu - Wrote haiku-like music blending Eastern sensibilities with Western instruments. He lived in a barn for a time to better focus on composition.
пустынь - In English, poustinia. A small, sparsely furnished cabin for solitary (generally religious) retreats.
Dick Proenneke - Filmed himself building a cabin in Alaska in the movie "Alone in the Wilderness." He's pretty amazing.
Ryōkan Taigu - A buddhist monk who left the monastery to live in a hut outside of town. He wrote poems about his daily life and his shack.
Ted Kaczynski - Aka The Unabomber. Before he snapped he was a mathematician studying complex analysis. Built a tiny cabin in Montana which he filled with books and supplies.
Bigger Stronger Faster* - Awesome documentary on steroid use in weightlifting, really thought provoking.
Alone in the Wilderness - A guy that is built like Popeye goes into the Yukon and builds a log cabin by hand. I think its really inspirational.