DIRECTED BY: JEREMY WORKMAN/2018
KINO LORBER STREET DATE: MARCH 26, 2019
Imagine the true story of a man, living in New York City, working as an engineer, who literally walks away from it all. Compared in the DVD description as a modern day Thoreau, Matt Green sold most of his earthly possessions, left his apartment, and began living off of a $15 per day budget. With over 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City, winding through the 5 boroughs, Matt began an epic quest to simply walk every single one of them. The World Before Your Feet is the documentary film that walks alongside Matt for much of his journey.
Matt Green comes off as a pretty rational guy in the interviews as he walks along each road, pathway and byway of his adopted city. Interviews with his former girlfriends give the impression that Matt has everything he needs to find happiness. None of them seemed to feel that there were any red flags about Matt other than the fact that he was so driven to simply walk this path that he was never going to be the type to settle down and pursue their idealized life. So they reluctantly watched him walk away, content to crash on the couches of friends, or in the apartments where he would take short term jobs house-sitting and cat-sitting.
The journey is fascinating for no other reason than even Matt doesn’t know why he is compelled to pursue this life. He just knows it makes sense to him and he is not in it for reaching a certain destination or goal other than what he learns along the way. Winding in and out of the boroughs, he encounters people from all walks of life, ethnicity, religion, and other backgrounds. All are fascinated by his chosen path in life, but most warm to him as they stop and talk to him. Matt never seems to be in a hurry, and takes time to truly make America’s largest city his own private small town. If anything, we see that connecting with our community isn’t difficult, but it must be intentional.
Oscar-nominated Actor Jesse Eisenberg learned about Matt’s story and jumped on board the documentary as an executive producer. The DVD from Kino Lorber provides a few nice bonus features. One is an interview with Jesse Eisenberg about his connection to this project and why he thought he wanted to help get Matt’s story out there. The other is a South-by-Southwest (SXSX) interview and Q&A where Matt shares more of his journey, which he also documented in an online blog. There are also some deleted scenes, and a trailer for the film.
The World Before Your Feet is presented in 1.78:1, 16×9, with 5.1 Surround/2.0 Stereo, and is in English with optional English SDH Subtitles.
