Richard Proenneke

[RedLeader]

Last night I watched "Alone in the Wilderness", a documentary / film by a guy called Richard Proenneke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke). Proenneke  retired in his 50s after a life of being a carpenter and engineer and disappeared off to an Alaskan lake to live for a year or so. Ultimately he stayed for the best part of 35 years and the film details his first year which was mostly taken up building his own log cabin. He was totally alone apart from occasional deliveries of supplies by plane and he had his own video camera that he used to document his life.

It's a wonderful film and well worth a spin.  Proenneke says he turned his back on tedious 50-hour work weeks and moved to Alaska "to do a thing to completion" and I have to say, getting up today to drive the rush hour to sit in an office seems so much more depressing than usual.

I think he shot enough footage for 2 more movies to be released and I know there's a book floating around, although Richard died in 2003 at the age of 87.

More here : http://www.aloneinthewilderness.com and http://www.dickproenneke.com/

[LandyLiam]

I just hope he got full planning permission for the cabin   

[twentyclicks]

Cool - on my *ahem* investigations about this online, it appears there are 2 other movies about DP available. Lots of rave reviews of this, can't wait to watch it.

[big chris]

He does a cracker set of door hinges

[Paul72]

I watched some of this on YouTube, very inspirational and a great way to live.

[Mourneman]

What channel did you watch it on Redleader,sounds very interesting

[RedLeader]

I didn't see it on tv, I watched the DVD version.

What channel did you watch it on Redleader,sounds very interesting