NEVADA CITY, Calif. — What happens to a community, and to a planet, when a 15-year-old girl knows she can become an engineer, a doctor or a business owner without bankrupting her family? Women in Kerala, Cuba and Slovenia already know the answer. On Saturday, October 24, just ten days before Election Day, Nevada County audiences can see it for themselves.
Saving Walden’s World, a documentary recently accepted for national distribution on PBS via NETA, screens free at 6 p.m. in the Gene Albaugh Community Room at the Madelyn Helling Library, 980 Helling Way, Nevada City.
The film doesn’t wait for a single breakthrough technology or a perfect policy. Instead, it travels to places where women-led priorities like literacy, healthcare and reproductive freedom have already produced stable, equitable communities that don’t depend on endless growth. The solutions it documents are not always obvious, and they rarely make headlines. But they are working now, and they could be within reach far sooner than most people assume.
“With ballots already in mailboxes, people are asking what actually moves the needle on the big problems,” said Pamela Biery, a local supporter of the screening. “This film shows that some of the most powerful answers come from women building for their own communities, and that the choices we make, including at the ballot box, decide whether those answers get a chance here.”
The story is told through filmmaker Jim Merkel, a former military engineer turned sustainability activist, who raises his son, Walden, on an off-grid homestead in Maine while setting out to find out what kind of world Walden will inherit. That question takes him across three continents.
“We document societies that made college free for all, including the poorest women, over 60 years ago,” said Merkel. “When a 15-year-old girl knows her dreams to be an engineer, educator, doctor, or businesswoman won’t burden her family, her entire life changes in beautiful ways.”
The film has screened at 23 international film festivals on four continents and won 14 awards, including selections in Barcelona, Kolkata, Mexico and Venezuela. It was also shown in New York City as part of the United Nations Summit of the Future. Its creative team includes Academy Award winner Deborah Shaffer, who directed the Cuba segments; four-time Emmy winner Bob Maraist, cinematographer and co-producer; BAFTA and Emmy honoree David Wright, who shot in Kerala; and editors Nyneve Minnear (Little Richard: I Am Everything) and Mickey Green (five Emmys and a Peabody).
The Nevada City screening is the final California stop on 100 Rooms. 1 Story, a grassroots tour bringing the film into libraries, churches and community rooms across North America. Merkel will stay after the film for a live Q&A. Afterward, the conversation moves to a sustainability social in downtown Nevada City, where attendees can keep talking with the director and connect with local groups working on resilience close to home. The location will be announced.
Event Details
- What: Saving Walden’s World, screening and Q&A with director Jim Merkel
- When: Saturday, October 24, 2026, 6:00–7:30 PM (doors open 5:30 PM)
- After-party: Sustainability social in downtown Nevada City following the screening (location TBA)
- Where: Gene Albaugh Community Room, Madelyn Helling Library, 980 Helling Way, Nevada City, CA 95959
- Admission: Free and open to the public
- Website: savingwaldensworld.org
- Trailer: youtu.be/an4LqG9mLlM
About the Local Hosts
Deb & Leo Chapman and Nevada County Community Partners are local advocates for community resilience, environmental stewardship and social action, bringing solutions-oriented cinema and dialogue to the region. Madelyn Helling Library serves as a community hub for learning, civil discourse and civic engagement in Nevada County.