Our first post!!

Here is our press release:

HAARLEM – On 17 March 2012 filmmakers Jasper Nuijt and Stephanie Offhaus will start an extraordinary journey through Europe. During two and a half months they will visit different alternative communities, where they will film during their stay. True to life, close-up experiences which they will share with the world through their videoblog.

In a Europe ravaged for the past 4 years by a financial crisis, with no solution in sight, this duo will look for alternatives to the present society themselves. They will visit several communes that have consciously chosen for an alternative lifestyle. The residents of these communes are bound by their collective intentions. This can be social and financial reasons, religious convictions, or the group strifes for sustainability.

Nuijt and Offhaus hope to get to know the people behind these initiatives during their journey. Find out their motives. Nuijt explains: “The dejection around me irritates me. Everybody is whining and complaining and I find myself doing the same. But that is not constructive and that’s why I want to do a bit of research on the options. Is there an alternative for our current society. It seems innovative to live within a small community where everybody has the same ideas, but in fact it is as old as the way to Rome. Tribal societies lived like that for centuries. We are all pushed into a pattern, but nowadays people are questioning that. I want to be inspired by likeminded people. How did they start, what is it like to live life in a community with a group of twenty people? And did they find the happiness they were looking for?

Offhaus: “Some communes grow their own food, generate their own energy and sometimes they even have their own monetary system, in order to function as separate from society as possible. I find that very inspiring. With our films we hope not only to find our own answers, but also to inspire people and to encourage them to reflect.

The duo has done a lot of research to prepare themselves. Offhaus: “We discovered that there are numerous communities within Europe that function according to the ideas and rules of the people who live there. That motivated us to want to know more and find out what we can learn”.

On lemondrops.mobi visitors will be informed via videoposts of the various communes. The filmers will put the films together and post them while they are on site.

About the makers

Jasper (NL) has been active within the media for the past 15 years. He is an allround programme maker who has done a lot of work for the National broadcasting corporations. Jasper films, directs and assembles.

Music has been the red line in Steph’s (D) life for the last 15 years. She is a singer, tour and event-manager, but above all she was a stimulant for musicians in the underground scene of eastern Germany.