6-minute Film of Lloyd and Home

SHELTER from Jason Sussberg on Vimeo.

In April, Jason Sussberg, a documentary film graduate student at Stanford, along with friends, made a 6-minute film of us and our home. They shot the film in 16mm film — pretty unusual nowadays. I asked Jason why film, and he replied:

“It was shot on 16mm color celluloid and telecined (scanned/color-corrected digitally) and edited in a Final Cut Pro (a non-linear editing software). The 16mm color film fits the subject and architecture quite well– both filmmaking and DIY homebuilding are beautiful artisanal crafts that are fighting for survival in a changing world. Film just looks better– better colors, textures, motion interpolating and feeling!”

It has been shown at the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Fest, San Francisco Documentary Festival, Big Sky Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival and Nevada City Film Festival.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

14 Responses to 6-minute Film of Lloyd and Home

  1. Lloyd, I posted a link on my blog—fascinating profile, and a job well done by the filmmakers.

    Thanks for everything through the years.

    Your work means a lot, to a lot of people. Keep doing what you do, man.

  2. Great to put a voice to the photo Lloyd… the same things are happening with building here in NZ. Unfortunately skills are being lost… newer generations have no idea how to build with honest materials and hand tools. This is why I'm enjoying your publications so much…

  3. So amazing to discover your blog after all these years…

    I dreamed the Shelter Whole Earth Back To the Land dream growing up in the 70's Bay Area soulless suburbs. I have been living for over 20 years in a cabin on an Island of the Salish Sea, and let me tell you brother the dream is very much alive out here!

    I hope that kids today rediscover the joy and power of making things.

    Blessings to you for carrying on!

  4. Hi Lloyd, thanks for such an interesting and inspiring Blog. I've just found your site and you are an inspiration. Loving reading your older posts and as someone who's "61 years young" I'm loving the fact that your skateboarding. I built skateboards when I was 14 or so years old but gave up. I'm really tempted to try the new skateboards that your using. I also was fascinated by Geodesic Domes and bought the Whole Earth Catalogue book called "Shelters" in the late 60's and it was always a pipedream of mine to build one. But seeing your later building my Geodesic Dome fantasy has been superceeded! Greetings from not-so-sunny Liverpool, UK!

    Colin (Grateful Fred's Americana, Roots & Music Nights).

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