As if people mattered

This film explores the work of EF Schumacher, a British economist and author of "Small is Beautiful". Filmed in Montana, Schumacher denounces what he calls "internal colonialism". After all, a colony is a territory that is being developed not for its own sake by its own inhabitants, but by far away power- as a source of raw materials. In this case the far away powers are the large metropolitan areas.

In a world short of energy, the system is becoming unworkable. Fewer factories farther and farther apart providing fewer and fewer jobs cannot provide the answer. In its place Schumacher argues for a system where local people consume local goods. This saves energy, creates jobs, but more important, it gives meaning to people's lives.

"The visuals convey the message: In a megabakery, a lonely, bored attendant watches loaves passing his station endlessly, while in an "appropriate" bakery, two young women execute the entire baking process and even get a chance to chat with their customers, Their bright faces fill the screen at the very moment that Schumacher propounds a society of self-sufficient people, unafraid of the future, unworried as to the meaning of their lives and the reason for their existence..." Science Books & Films "His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that -- in demonstrable and practical ways -- is changing the design of the world." Heroes for the Planet, Time Magazine