arturmarques.com iLog

I watched it on 2006–04–27, Thursday night.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0437806/

My rating: 8/10

In 1968, one man named Richard Proenneke, aged 51, decided to put himself to “the test of living alone, for one year”, at the untouched “Twin Lakes”, Aleutian Peninsula, on Alaska.

He chopped the trees needed to build a house; he alone built that house with his bare hands, using nothing but basic instruments for working on wood, some of which he manufactured in loco, as required. He also fished, hunted and planted his own food.

For the exception of one artificial plastic layer he applied to the roof of the house, to prevent water leaks, everything he used, he got it directly from the surroundings!

For the exception of sugar, coffee and other non essential items, his meals were also directly obtained from the surroundings…

This documentary is about pure contact with the elements: the air, the water and even the fire (well, he built a fireplace in the cabin)…

Dick Proenneke ended up living there, in solitude, for over 30 years, until he was 82 years old!

Buy it at: amazon.co.uk (not available) ; amazon.com ;

Some links related to Richard Proenneke’s person and adventure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Proenneke – Dick on wikipedia;

http://www.answers.com/topic/richard-proenneke – superb one page biography;

http://www.nps.gov/lacl/scrapbook/proeneke.htm – pictures of the cabin and more;

http://www.photo-mark.com/cgi-bin/set.cgi?set_id=32&n=14 – Mark Meyer’s photos of the cabin;

http://www.americanidle.org/MT/archives/2005/03/alone_in_the_wi_1.php – Loads of feedback on an independent review of the video;

http://www.cosmoetica.com/B183-DES127.htm – one other independent review of the video;

http://www.dickproenneke.com/ – commercial site that sells Dick’s video and other related products.

Above, the place.

Above, Richard Proenneke.