A documentary that explores one consecutive year in the lives of the locals in a slowly eroding small village at the bottom of Mount Svilaja, their relationship with nature, the influence of the world around them on their beliefs and superstitions and vice versa.
Dick Proenneke retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin in the wilderness at the base of the Aleutian Peninsula, in what is now Lake Clark National Park. Using color footage he shot himself, Proenneke traces how he came to this remote area, selected a homestead site and built his log cabin completely by himself. The documentary covers his first year in-country, showing his day-to-day activities and the passing of the seasons as he sought to scratch out a living alone in the wilderness.
