Garbage Warrior, which follows the radical environmental architect Michael Reynolds, was nominated for Best British Documentary at this year’s British Independent Film Awards. We spoke to first-time director Oliver Hodge.

Dazed Digital: How and why did you choose Michael Reynolds as a subject?
Oliver Hodge: I met Michael Reynolds in my home town of Brighton. He and his crew were invited here by a group of British eco-builders in summer 2003, to kick-start the building of the first English Earthship in Stanmer Park on the South Downs.

After watching him work, I was inspired immediately by his high energy and hands-on approach. The inventor of the building was working alongside his crew in the trenches. How many architects do you see swinging a sledge hammer or pick-axing out a sewage ditch?

He told us he had had his architect's license revoked, and his radical communities were shut down by planners in the late nineties. It was pretty clear that we had a story - Mike was a battle-scarred front-line eco-fighter who wanted fast change. He told me he wouldn't give up until he was six feet under!

DD: Was it a tough experience over three years?
OH: In the early days it was tough to get funding from broadcasters. I had to shoot nearly a third of the story before we were funded. That was a huge financial risk. I have worked on many stressful movies, but it is a different kind of stress when you are gambling that much of your own time and money.

It was a difficult narrative too, because so much had already happened. Often it was a case of waiting, back in the UK, until something was about to kick off. As soon as we got the call I was there with a camera, whether it was in court or in the post-tsunami or -hurricane Rita disaster zones.

DD: What's your personal view on the prospects for progressive architecture like Michael Reynolds'?
OH: It is frightening that houses are now responsible for nearly 50% of our CO2 emissions in many countries.
Mike's approach to architecture has the potential to achieve the radical social change we need to combat global warning. Everything you need in one of these housescomes from harnessing simple natural phenomena (gravity, radiation, convection) in simple ways, and it forces you to adopt a much more tuned-in way of thinking.If these ideas really took off imagine the freedom and political control we would have over our own lives, if we were no longer at the mercy of politics, oil prices or corporations.

DD: How did you find being BIFA nominated? Has this affected the film’s UK distribution at all?
OH: Being BIFA nominated was a great boost , it put the film in a different league and gained us some high profile press. We are in talks with some UKdistributors at present, and the nominations have undoubtedly helped that.

DD: You were on a panel recently called "Can Documentaries Change The World?" What did you conclude?
OH: I’m often asked "are you primarily an activist or a film maker?"
The answer is both. I wanted to make a film but was driven to make this one because of by my beliefs. Garbage Warrior has not even been released yet, but already it has inspired projects in Sierra Leone, Mexico and Norway just from its festival screenings. When it's screened on TV and in the cinema around the world. I am confident many more projects will happen.