How much does someone need Without Borders: Perspectives on Mobile Living attempts to answer this question through the testimony of people who have voluntarily lived “off the grid” in some form of vehicle or RV. Noting that the average American spends 47 percent of their net income on housing, the film focuses on the imbalance between freedom and comfort in modern society.
From the beginning, there has been a balance between those who choose to be mobile and those who are rendered homeless by unfortunate circumstances. The film’s subjects all live voluntarily in cars, emphasizing the need to question and challenge a social structure, consumerism that demands a constant sense of need. By downsizing and moving to a vehicle, whether it be a van, RV, or RV, subjects argued that mobile living counteracts the reduction in living space by allowing more mental space to reassess one’s needs.
Subjects shared different reasons why they chose to live on the road. For a man, a costly divorce and mounting medical bills have him considering buying a van instead of renting; for a woman, a devastating fire makes her life simple; for everyone else Says Henry David Thoreau’s poem “Walden” as an inspiration for reducing material needs. A couple who blog about their lifestyle cite improved eating habits and reduced consumption as two of the main benefits they experienced. Every member of the mobile community surveyed here cites a greater overall sense of freedom.
While some communities, often in dying small towns across the U.S., are embracing the mobility movement and reaping the financial benefits of welcoming travel trailers into their parking lots and campgrounds, broader societal biases also exist. Larger, wealthier areas often have “living eligibility laws” that prohibit sleeping in public or living in a car. These laws exist to protect the community from potentially dangerous transients of unknown criminal background and mental status. But one respondent said the general direction of society will lead to more people living in vehicles, which will eventually require more people to embrace this lifestyle.
Unbounded: Views on Mobile Living presents a moving insight into an alternative way of life, and an optimistic view of those who take part in it.
