Climate change isn’t real…

…until it happens to you.

Acres

a documentary by Roman Zenz

From the creators of the award-winning film Urban Fruit

Roman convinces Ray

to trade life in Los Angeles for a rural and more sustainable life in a mountain community. They buy four acres with a house in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

‘The Chores’
Grew up in the idyllic Bavarian mountains, and has been unsuccessfully trying to return to the countryside for all of his adult life.

‘The Stores’
Born in Chicago, grew up in Houston, studied in Boston, loves New York. Hates snakes.

They fix it all up.

Life is good until…

…everything burns down.

Will they cash out, cut their losses and run? Or rebuild in a sustainable and ecologically progressive way that can withstand future heat waves and the fires that often accompany them. And if they rebuild, how will they satisfy their individual and frequently conflicting needs? Roman insists on building a home without air conditioning out of respect for the planet. However, Ray (like most Americans) can only conceive of braving 100-degree temperatures with the comfort of conditioned air. (…and a clothes dryer, and a gas stove…)

In some ways, the film becomes a modern take on the classic 1960s sitcom Green Acres. How can a married couple with opposing viewpoints find common ground that works for both parties? How do we negotiate concern for the state of our environment with some creature comforts?

The B-Story

America runs on

Air Conditioning…

…but at what cost?

Air Conditioning has been providing thermal comfort for many and allowed people to live in areas where they couldn’t before without considering their natural surrounding climate…

…while at the same time making the outside even hotter, through direct heat, leaking hydrofluorocarbons (which are potent greenhouse gases), and rapidly rising energy consumption (most of which is still created by burning fossil fuels).