The award-winning film follows women-led solutions that lifted whole communities without wrecking the planet. Director Jim Merkel joins each night for a post-screening Q&A. All proceeds support reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare in eastern Maine.
ORONO — What happens to a community, and to a planet, when a 15-year-old girl knows she can become an engineer, a doctor or a business owner without bankrupting her family? Women in Kerala, Cuba and Slovenia already know the answer. On Wednesday, Nov. 4 and Friday, Nov. 6, audiences in Orono and greater Bangor can see it for themselves and support a Maine organization doing the same work close to home.
Saving Walden’s World, a documentary recently accepted for national distribution on PBS via NETA, screens at 6 p.m. both nights at Black Bear Cinemas, 6 Stillwater Ave, Orono. Tickets are $10, and both screenings are fundraisers benefiting the Mabel Wadsworth Center, the Bangor-based provider of reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care and community support services across midcoast and eastern Maine.
The film doesn’t wait for a single breakthrough technology or a perfect policy. Instead, it travels to places where women-led priorities like literacy, healthcare and reproductive freedom have already produced stable, equitable communities that don’t depend on endless growth. The solutions it documents are not always obvious, and they rarely make headlines. But they are working now.
The story is told through filmmaker Jim Merkel, a former military engineer turned sustainability activist, who raises his son, Walden, on an off-grid homestead in Maine while setting out to find out what kind of world Walden will inherit. That question takes him across three continents.
“Two nights at Black Bear Cinemas means two opportunities for the Orono and greater Bangor community to engage with this film and support the Mabel Wadsworth Center,” Director Jim Merkel said. “The work Mabel Wadsworth does, healthcare, empowerment, reproductive freedom, is exactly what this film documents in Kerala, Cuba and Slovenia. The connection is direct.”
“Community support is what allows us to provide care to and advocate for our community,” Aspen Ruhlin, community engagement manager at the Mabel Wadsworth Center, said. “It is what creates our care packages for abortion patients. It is what allows us to provide prenatal care for those continuing pregnancies. It is what allows trans people in our community to have a safe and affirming healthcare provider. Community support is also what allows us to do our advocacy and education work, whether that looks like testifying on legislation at the State House or teaching inclusive sex education.”
The film has screened at 23 international film festivals on four continents and won 14 awards, including selections in Barcelona, Kolkata, Mexico and Venezuela. It was also shown in New York City as part of the United Nations Summit of the Future. Its creative team includes Academy Award winner Deborah Shaffer, who directed the Cuba segments; four-time Emmy winner Bob Maraist, cinematographer and co-producer; BAFTA and Emmy honoree David Wright, who shot in Kerala; and editors Nyneve Minnear (Little Richard: I Am Everything) and Mickey Green (five Emmys and a Peabody).
The Orono screenings are part of 100 Rooms. 1 Story, a grassroots tour bringing the film into libraries, churches, theaters and community rooms across North America, with the goal of hosting 100 screenings over the next twelve months. Merkel will stay after each film for a live Q&A about the film’s vision of planetary healing, local sovereignty, and the practical alternatives being built right now by communities around the world.
Event Details:
- WHAT: “Saving Walden’s World” – Directed by Jim Merkel
- WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m.
- WHERE: Black Bear Cinemas, 6 Stillwater Ave, Orono, ME 04473
- TICKETS: $10 | https://www.blackbearcinemas.com/#
- FUNDRAISER BENEFICIARY: Mabel Wadsworth Center, Bangor, ME
- MEDIA CONTACT: Jim Merkel | jimimerkel@gmail.com | (207) 323-1474
- BENEFICIARY CONTACT: Aspen Ruhlin | ruhlin@mabelwadsworth.org
- WEBSITE: savingwaldensworld.org
- TRAILER: https://youtu.be/an4LqG9mLlM?si=fnkHeqFoT03B9dKJ
Saving Walden’s World has screened at 23 international film festivals and won 14 awards. It has been accepted for national distribution on PBS via NETA.
Black Bear Cinemas is a seven-screen independent cinema located at 6 Stillwater Ave in Orono, known for its community-focused programming, digital projection and strong ties to the University of Maine community.
The Mabel Wadsworth Center, located at 700 Mount Hope Ave, Bangor, ME, provides reproductive healthcare, confidential counseling and gender-affirming care to communities across midcoast and eastern Maine.