Essay Example on Discovering Minimalism: Examining Life's Important Things

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things is a documentary that examines the numerous flavors of minimalism by taking the audience through the lives of the minimalists from different walks of life, such as families, architects, journalists, entrepreneurs, and scientists, among others. The film follows Nicodemus and Milburn on a yearlong book tour while traveling in their car to many cities and towns across the United States. As the tour continues, the actors attract larger audiences. The film demonstrates the life of minimalists and the global impact that is caused by consumer culture. As demonstrated in the film, the actors at minimalists and tend to preach the life they live, which gives them a lot of credibilities, with pieces of evidence of their interactions of the crowd. In this regard, the central argument of the documentary is the life of minimalism in the context of its societal impact regarding freedom, environment, small spaces, and consumerism.

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The documentary achieved to attract the audience through the narrative in the first five minutes, which is demonstrated to set the problem in a dramatic style. The world of minimalists shows the awkward behavior of such people, who shop for items that are not needed, work in the jobs that they do not want, and do many things that they do not wish to just for the sake of a paycheck. The film demonstrated the significant themes by bringing a touch with the guest appearances of all-star casts. One of the most important ideas presented is freedom. The documentary promotes this idea of finding freedom by living with less. It was demonstrated that Nicodemus and Millburn both made conscious decisions to leave the corporate professions and live with less, which led to more freedom and better relationships. Additionally, the film demonstrated how consumerism harms the environment. However, this needs a critical analysis to make the film more impactful as there was a little mention of how the nature of the humans impact the environment.

The actors had different professions, which enables them to articulate the point more vividly. Schor was an economist and Harris, a neuroscientists who were able to explore human satisfaction from different perspectives and professions. For example, they demonstrated how the advertisement is done to manipulate people. However, all these developments show how the documentary does a great job of evaluating the human impact of the rapacious treatment of the planet and how it does not work in any front. To achieve a great touch with the audience, the documentary was done well, with the incorporation of filmography and music that was tasteful. This, coupled with the meaningful interviews, makes the film have a great message and an excellent overall quality.

Conclusion

The Minimalist documentary is an exciting piece of art that should be recommended to all society members, especially the ones who are already brainwashed to the world of consumerism, beautiful job titles, and large paychecks. The stories are lovely and inspiring with fantastic quality. However, the film could have been more impactful with more minimalist geography and filmography. For example, the music could have been in a more minimalist style. In order to artistically express the message, the film could have moved a little slower. However, it is evident that for the message to be spread effectively, everyone must become part of the medium. Therefore, the documentary is not about the sensationalized media hype but about the everyday life that makes or breaks the peoples' stories.