Maverick architect Michael Reynolds, having decided early on that his training was "worthless," has devoted his career to experimenting and developing totally self-sufficient eco-buildings.

Reynolds' message is that houses are one of the biggest contributors to energy waste in our society and fixing them can help reduce environmental hardship for future generations, while also freeing us from unnecessary financial burdens. "We need to be doing something now. Tomorrow morning," he drawls, with a characteristic sense of urgency.

Reynolds has been creating earthships out of materials that would end up in a landfill - tires, cans, glass and plastic bottles - in New Mexico since the '70s. These fantastical-looking buildings are completely off-the-grid. No incoming sewage pipes. No water pipes. No electricity lines. He designs his buildings to make the greatest use of available energy from light, wind and rainwater. They are free-formed shapes, using curved earth walls and multicoloured bottle domes, and they have weird stuff like propellers pointing out of them.

The grizzled Reynolds, with his shaggy, grey hair, is great company as he articulates his passion for sustainable living with a mischievous sense of humour. Oliver Hodge's judiciously edited point-of-view piece grows in strength as it follows Reynolds' protracted struggle with local and state authorities who shut down his community of "earthships" in 1997 for building code contraventions.

Reynolds' response, after having been robbed of his livelihood, credentials and self-respect, is to suit up and take his battle to the state senate, with a mixture of bloody-minded determination and zealous conviction. Although the film only touches on the official issues with Reynolds' architectural inventions, it is a story well told and the good-humoured warrior at the centre is an inspiration.