An altogether more wholesome protagonist can be found in the cuddly form of Michael Reynolds, the star of Olvier Hodge’s inspiring documentary Garbage Warrior. For the past three decades this silver-tressed eco-hero has been transforming piles of glass bottles, beer cans and rubber tyres into wondrous houses in the New Mexican desert. Thanks to solar power, water stills and internal septic tanks, these “earth ships” are “off-grid” – not reliant on any external electricity, gas, water and sewer systems.

As such, they arouse the suspicions of local government, and Reynolds is forced to shave off his beard and squeeze himself into a suit (“You look like a homeless car salesman!” his wife giggles) to plead his case at the state legislature. Having defied the onset of ecological Armageddon, he finds the filibustering obduracy of the American political machine a far more frustrating foe. Reynolds’s skills are far more appreciated in India’s Andaman Islands, where he helps locals to rebuild their devastated village after the Asian tsunami.

15, 86mins

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