Neatly balancing entertainment with information and a celebration of very unique brand of social outcast with a serious treatment of the issues that have driven them to the fringes - to say nothing of the further issues arising once they've arrived there - Jody Shapiro's How To Start You Own Country proves to be far less concerned with how to actually start a country of your own than it is with the people who have already done so.
Though the definition is somewhat hazy, the phenomenon that Shapiro explores here is the micro-nation, tiny countries seldom recognized on any map. They come in a surprising variety of shapes and sizes, from the very old and very serious - the Principality of Seborga was founded in 820 AD and has been struggling to gain widespread recognition ever since - to seemingly frivolous art-punk stunts such as Gregory Green's New Free State Of Caroline, which does not even have any territory.
Using the 'Second Largest Country On The Continent Of Australia', an off shore nation established in an abandoned offshore gun tower, a small island claimed by the inventor of the Segway and others a sort of case study for the phenomenon Shapiro balances quirky sketches of the founders and rulers of these odd nations with a much more serious look at the entire concept of nationhood, what it really means and the role of the nation in our lives and in the world.
In most ways a very typical 'talking head' style documentary, How To Start Your Own Country thrives to a great extent by knowing when to give the audience the quirky charms of Prince Leonard of the Hutt River Principality and when to move on to the more serious minded and pragmatic ideas of the dreamers at The Seasteading Institute and Dean Kamen's North Dumpling Island who are looking seriously to create a new paradigm and striving for better ways to live. The ideas raised here could easily fill more than the film's slender 72 minute run time but as an introduction to some very odd people with very serious ideas, How To Start Your Own Country is a good place to begin.
Though the definition is somewhat hazy, the phenomenon that Shapiro explores here is the micro-nation, tiny countries seldom recognized on any map. They come in a surprising variety of shapes and sizes, from the very old and very serious - the Principality of Seborga was founded in 820 AD and has been struggling to gain widespread recognition ever since - to seemingly frivolous art-punk stunts such as Gregory Green's New Free State Of Caroline, which does not even have any territory.
Using the 'Second Largest Country On The Continent Of Australia', an off shore nation established in an abandoned offshore gun tower, a small island claimed by the inventor of the Segway and others a sort of case study for the phenomenon Shapiro balances quirky sketches of the founders and rulers of these odd nations with a much more serious look at the entire concept of nationhood, what it really means and the role of the nation in our lives and in the world.
In most ways a very typical 'talking head' style documentary, How To Start Your Own Country thrives to a great extent by knowing when to give the audience the quirky charms of Prince Leonard of the Hutt River Principality and when to move on to the more serious minded and pragmatic ideas of the dreamers at The Seasteading Institute and Dean Kamen's North Dumpling Island who are looking seriously to create a new paradigm and striving for better ways to live. The ideas raised here could easily fill more than the film's slender 72 minute run time but as an introduction to some very odd people with very serious ideas, How To Start Your Own Country is a good place to begin.