Darwin (Nick Brandestini: 2010) USA

Reviewed by Addie Rosales. Viewed at The 2011 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Darwin is a documentary named after the town in which it was filmed, a very isolated town located in Death Valley, California. This small town consists of only 35 people, but fifty years prior to current times had a population of 3,500. While listening to Nick Brandestini during Q&A after the viewing of his documentary, he informed us that the people of Darwin weren’t too opened at first in letting him film his documentary in Darwin. This makes sense considering they chose to live in Darwin in order to get away from the “civilized” world they feel no connection to. I could imagine that they also probably nervous that people just wouldn’t understand and accept their life styles. Luckily they warmed up to Nick, who finally go their permission create his documentary on Darwin.

One reason, among others, which made me enjoy this documentary was the way Nick chose to film it. It seemed as if Nick made a strong effort not to have his film come off as being judgmental and making it seem as if Darwin is unfit for people to live in.  Instead, through the cinematography and interviews throughout the movie really compliments his personal interest and curiosity of “ghost” towns. Everyone who is introduced in this documentary are all interesting and unique individuals. Some of the characters you meet are ones such as an artist, different couples (one couple consisting of a transgendered female and her partner), an anarchist, and retirees. Everyone, even including the individuals who weren’t introduced in the documentary,  only one person has a job. This single job belongs to a woman, who I found to be humorous, at the town’s post office. Everyone else’s source of income is provided by federal checks and/or their savings. Other factors I enjoyed about this documentary were the citizen’s points of views on life, along with the way they decide to run their town. The people if Darwin take it upon themselves to run Darwin, maybe because they want to, or because they have to for the lack of having a government. A few examples of their responsibilities consist of fixing their fragile water system, collecting books in order to open a library, the creation of their own fire trucks in case of an emergency, and to have enough items and necessities to provide for the town in case of a some kind of a disaster, along with other tasks.
Even though the people of Darwin are becoming more opened to the idea of sharing their home and lifestyle to outsiders, one can tell by the unwelcoming signs, along with the location of their town near an old naval bombing range that the people of Darwin prefers their privacy.  Darwin’s history was very violent, however  I didn’t get that feeling in Darwin’s current time. Though it doesn’t seem nearly as violent now, every household has at least one gun, just in case. Something that I really admired about the citizens of Darwin  is the fact that everyone has a mutual understanding  to accept each other for who they are now, instead of who they may have been.  I can understand why people may be closed minded to these people, and turned off by Darwin’s location. Even so, I believe Darwin’s citizens are completely comfortable and very proud of their home and life style. No one seemed to mind what people may think about them, because they are perfectly happy with their life in Darwin and that’s all that’s important to them.