The screening of the short documentary Living Lightly was a debut in more ways than one. Its screening at the Denver Film Festival marked the films first public screening and it was director Robin Burke’s directorial debut. Prior to making this film, she worked predominantly as a producer on other people’s projects. Living Lightly is a debut that any first time director would be very proud of. It is poetic and thought provoking and just plain beautiful. The film is about the Vido family. They have chosen to live in such a way that they only take what they need from the earth. The film focuses on their practice of schything to make hay for their livestock. Interviews with the family are imbued with a kind of pastoral poetry that few documentaries achieve. Burke’s approach is not to charm the audience with flashy camera work or clever editing but rather, she places the camera, frames her shots wide and captures the beauty of this family, swinging their scythes in what amounts to a kind of moving painting. After the screening I talked about her process when making a documentary and what it was like to enter the world of this unusual and fascinating family.

Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Living Lightly, Robin Burke