Documentary About Living In the Woods

October 13, 2007 5:34 PM

Several years ago I saw a documentary on PBS about a guy who moved to the woods (Alaska, I think) and built a log cabin. He also built all of his furnishings right down to cups and dishes. The film showed him designing and constructing all of this. He lived there for most of the rest of his life. Does anyone know the name of this piece?
posted by A Long and Troublesome Lameness to media & arts (12 comments total)

First result for pbs alaska log cabin.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:38 PM on October 13, 2007

First result for pbs alaska log cabin.

Yep -- Richard Proenneke -- previously on MeFi - 1, 2, 3.
posted by ericb at 5:55 PM on October 13, 2007

Thanks MrMoonPie. My Google searches reek with the stench of hindsight.
posted by A Long and Troublesome Lameness at 5:58 PM on October 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

maybe you should watch this: into the wild [book]as a 'scared into proper preparation' story. I guess it's a movie coming out pretty soon. It's about James Gallien who didn't prepare for his journey to alaska, after giving away his college fund and dumping his car.

The site 100% flash incidentally. Takes up the entire browser window.

Your story just reminded me of this, thats all : )

Also, I bet there is satellite internet available at high speeds! You can probably learn from other people's experiences and find solutions to 'outdoors issues'. But I guess that's cheating ; p.

btw: Joh Krakauer is an awesome nature adventure writer if you're not familiar.
posted by albatross5000 at 6:31 PM on October 13, 2007

It's about James Gallien who didn't prepare for his journey to alaska, after giving away his college fund and dumping his car.

Actually, it's about Christopher McCandless. Gallien is the driver in the story who picked up McCandless as a hitchhiker.
posted by Brittanie at 6:50 PM on October 13, 2007

The movie "Into The Wild" has been out for a few weeks to generally good (but not great) reviews.

Those Proenneke films (which are fascinating) are commercially available. In my area, they were available as a premium is you supported the local PBS channel to a certain $ level.

Off topic, but Krakauer also wrote "Under The Banner Of Heaven," a great and very lucid depiction of the Mormons and one spectacularly weird crime relating to Mormo ideology gone horrible wrong - worth picking up.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 7:24 PM on October 13, 2007

The PBS Proenneke doc was one of the best I've seen. Pretty compelling stuff
posted by KokuRyu at 10:00 PM on October 13, 2007

What's crazy is that clicking the Google link returns this post as one of the top results. Already.
posted by lizzicide at 7:42 AM on October 14, 2007

Wow, I'm with you lizzicide... that got indexed so quickly that its kind of unsettling.
posted by pwally at 7:55 AM on October 14, 2007

You might also be interested in The Woodland House that was built in a Sussex woodland. It was filmed for a UK series called Grand Designs.
posted by essexjan at 9:40 AM on October 14, 2007

The same family that introduced me to Proenneke several years ago are now big fans of Survivorman. Proenneke's goal wasn't nearly as extreme as Les Stroud's, it's interesting that they both did all their own filming of their exploits. They both make Man vs. Wild look like a wimp.
posted by lhauser at 6:26 AM on October 15, 2007

You may also be interested in this lady.

Check out her book page. Also her photojournal for amazing pictures of BC wilderness.

She built her cabins by herself with a chainsaw and a come-along. I stayed in one of her cabins while doing some survey work on the lake she lives on and the one upstream. I've never seen a more spectacular sunset in my life.

Her books are very entertaining reading.
posted by Gooberoo at 10:06 AM on October 15, 2007