Grandma Builds an Earthship

An award winning documentary (video trailer above) of a 67-year-old grandmother building her totally off-the-grid home. Pascha actually dug the trenches, placed the timbers, wired the outlets, milled the cabinets and trawled the walls of her Earthship. Pascha’s 12-year pioneering effort fought through a mountain of regulatory barriers to bring alternative (nonstandard) construction methods to the high Rockies. She came to the realization that the challenges of building her dream home were building her inner spirit as well.

Within two years from finishing, Pascha collapsed and lost consciousness. Even though her home wasn’t finished, Pascha’s cardiologist told her she would not be able to live at 9000 feet any longer. From the outset, naysayers had doubted an older woman without experience in the construction trades could do what Pascha had envisioned. Using alternative building materials to create an energy self-sufficient home in one of the US’s harshest environments would be a monumental challenge. Despite these pessimistic views, Pascha refused to give up and forged ahead to achieve her mountain dream.

This inspirational story is not only informative and heart warming, but also offers insight into one of many possibilities for our nation to achieve energy independence. There were risks, but her actions and self-confidence overcame uncertainty. Watching Pascha’s spiritual growth allows us all to ponder the possibilities of reaching our own full potential.  (See trailer above)

As an additional bonus, the producer, Kent Gunnufson, discusses the important issues of the Earth-ship alternative construction process on the commentary track.

This documentary brought me recognition for producing the best documentary in Colorado  in 2008. The Independence Film Festival was a large film festival taking place in 5 Colorado towns at different times, but the award ceremony for all the towns was held at the Sandre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado. It was a superb venue to get my first festival award. One year later at one of the United State’s largest and oldest film festivals, Worldfest, this film was awarded the coveted Platnium Award.

 

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