Research on Minimalism

I'm a self-diagnosed Minimalist. I don't buy things I don't need. I'm constantly decluttering my life. I dress the mostly the same everyday. It's a pretty joyless life... sometimes.

I don't blindly adhere to every principle of Minimalism, and I definitely have a lot of criticisms of the movement. I really want to make my short film about this subculture and expressing, in a way, my own experiences with this lifestyle.

I rewatched the documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things on Netflix to prepare for writing the script and it gave a lot of valuable insight into the Minimalist subculture.

This quote really sums up the entire premise of the doc:

"People will inevitably come up to us and they'll be like 'Now I'm not a Minimalist like you. I have this book collection, and I love books, and I've got this nice big library, and I love the way the books smell, I love turning the pages, I love how they feel, I love lending them out to my friends...' and I'm like 'Hey. Keep your books. It sounds like you get a lot of value out of your books.'"

Minimalism is about making sure that you keep things that give you value. My criticism of the Minimalist movement has always been that getting rid of stuff will not make you content the same way that buying a ton of crap won't make you happy either. Minimalism isn't the magic potion for fulfillment that it is often branded as, but rather, a path towards it.

I turned to the director of the documentary, Matt D'Avella, who is an incredibly popular YouTuber, for some visual inspiration.

He is part of the "Self-Help" genre of YouTube videos, which I usually equate to scam artists and phonies, but this guy seems pretty genuine and I really dig his style. 

His most popular video 'A Day in the Life of A Minimalist' is quite literally the core of my inspiration for this.

He opens with a satirical depiction of a morning for a Minimalist. He shows an empty bedroom, no toilet paper, a kitchen drawer with just a fork, knife, and spoon. He then proceeds to say "This isn't what my day actually looks like. I'm not that much of an asshole."

I loved that line, and I thought... what if I make the film about a person who takes it way too far and becomes the person Matt is poking fun at with the segment. I would not have to leave the house, so it is perfect for Corona season.