“One Couch at a Time”

Movie Review for  “One Couch at a Time” 

2.13.13

A few months ago I saw a documentary produced by a friend, Jean-Michel Werk and directed by/starring Alexandra Liss. The movie is called “One Couch at a Time” and is about the CouchSurfing project/community and an emerging “gift economy” which the documentary claims we are currently entering. If you are unfamilar with CouchSurfing, check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchSurfing. The film follows Alexandra Liss (a well seasoned traveler and CS'er) for 7 months using CouchSurfing.

While dreaming up the film, the crew made a kickstarter profile where Alexandra called for individuals to participate in this project with her (basically, to be her travel companions to various countries she was planning on visiting). The film is warm and light-hearted, and we get to see Alexandra learning, growing, and realizing. The film also captures many CS experiences very well – awkward exchanges, general cultural differences, sharing space and time, saying goodbye, comfort limits/boundaries. I think that is what I liked most about the film; there were so many stories and emotions that I could relate to as a CS'er, and it was nice to see them portrayed in a documentary.

Towards the end of the film there is more emphasis on the “emerging gift economy”. The film covers crowd funding, ridesharing, Burningman, etc. The message one takes at the end of the film is that by fostering/nurturing these examples or networks of gift (or direct) exchange, we can can experience various forms of happiness and liberation not easily achieved in current mainstream socio-political contexts. Interviews in the film include sharing economy expert Rachel Botsman; Larry Harvey (Burningman founder); economist Charles Eisenstein; the founder of Couchsurfing, Casey Fenton.

Now, my input on the documentary:

I think overall the film reflects very well the goals, structure, and experiences associated with the CS of 2007ish-2010ish. Unfortunately, the site has changed a lot in the past 2 years, and has decreased in overall quality. I think most committed/active CS'ers would like to know why CS sold itself to a for-profit business. The move to for-profit status sold CS (and essentially, sold a community of people) to a business that of course Casey Felton is an owner of. This, in nature, contradicts a lot of what Casey Felton talks about/claims when interviewed in the film. I think most people are naturally pretty upset about this, especially when CS is doted upon for being such a lovely example of a sharing economy/network.

With that said, the film was being made in 2010, before the non-profit status changed, but I am still curious to know why Alexandra and Jean-Michel continued to produce the documentary as is, all the while knowing exactly what was happening to CS' for-profit change.

My next critique is that while the documentary reflects the overall CS experience very well, it does not give enough coverage to the issue of women's safety while using CS. This was also surprising to me, given that Alexandra is the protagonist. The film has an overall “say yes” message, and fails to acknowledge/confront the fact that different people are going to have very different comfort levels and risks that they are willing to take in life based on their social positioning and lived experiences. There are a lot of people who would never ever engage in CS, especially young women, and usually for very good reasons. There is a lot to gain, and for certain people, there may be a lot to lose too. Not everyone can or wants to have a “say yes” attitude, especially in this modern world. Maybe sad, but a reality that we must accept, especially in regards to respecting and validating women and their choices. Anyways, there was a brief part in the movie where Chelsea (one of Alexandra's companions) speaks about uncomfortable exchanges where gender was in play, but in general I think the film could have had less emphasis on the “say yes” attitude topic and more on why not everyone is going to be so vivaciously jumping on the CS bandwagon. Especially as the site continues to grow larger and the restrictions on who can join become less.

My last critique, of course, is of the glorification of Burningman. It costs nearly 400$ to go to Burningman! Plus getting there. I will fight til the day I day that Burningman is not good example of a gift economy – better and true gift economies which are long-lasting are found in community gardens, churches, neighborhoods, time banks, and networks like freecycle/craigslist/CS.

I truly commend this crew for making such a lovely documentary to show the world what Couchsurfing is (or at least, was), but unfortunately the CS project itself has taken a swift turn away from true gift-exchange community status that it once had. I enjoyed the documentary and thought it was very good and heart-warming, but there were a few crucial components of the film that could use improvement in my opinion.

Thank you, One Couch at a Time crew (Zohra, you were great), and congrats.