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One Big Home

Bullfrog Films • 1h 27m

Directed by Thomas Bena • Documentary • 2017 • 88 minutes

Gentrification comes in many forms. On the tiny island of Martha's Vineyard, where presidents and celebrities vacation, trophy homes threaten to destroy the island's unique character.

Twelve years in the making, ONE BIG HOME follows one carpenter's journey to understand the trend toward giant houses. When he feels complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, Thomas Bena takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera. Bumping up against angry homeowners and builders who look the other way, he works with his community and attempts to pass a new bylaw to limit house size.

“A passionate and self-discerning film. It was like a novel that you’d written and put all of your life into. That gave it such weight...I loved it. It made me cry.” —D.A. Pennebaker, director, Don't Look Back, The War Room

Tags
activism, american (u.s.) studies, americas, angry homeowners, architects, architecture, area studies, art and architecture, bob defelice, brendan o'neill, builders, bullfrog films, business, carpentry, celebrities vacation, chris murphy, citizenship, clarissa allen, coastline, community, community organizing, conspicuous consumption, consumers, criminal justice, david knauf, david silverman, destroying island's character, development, doug liman, elected officials, environment, environmental impacts, environmental sociology, expository, filmmaking, fishing, gentrification, growth, housing and construction sector, housing and homelessness, ill-planned growth, immigrant workers, jack reed, labor and economics, law and legal studies, leonard jason jr, limiting house size, local economies, martha's vineyard, mike wallace, mollie doyle, nat benjamin, new bylaw, new england, north american studies, one big home, ovid, patrick broemmel, peter breese, planning board, property rights vs. community values, rodney bunker, saskia and david vanderhoop, sectors, sense of place, social issues, social movements and activism, social studies, sociology, spirit of community, sustainability, sustainable architecture, sustainable future, the, tragedy of the commons, trophy homes, united states, world regions, zoning

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