The Last Man of Mahana

Web (Full Length) – 2017

In the late 1970s a like-minded group of young people decided to live together communally on a block of land in the Coromandel, and the Mahana community was born. In this Vice documentary Arthur Van Resseghem, the last member of that original group, guides the camera around the dilapidated sites of "vandalised" commune houses. Van Resseghem believes the other residents have abandoned Mahana's original vision — but it seems he has become an outlier in the community, with other residents claiming 'undesirable' people were being promised free homes.

I remember sitting here on the bench and I had what I call a religious experience. I knew I had arrived at a place where I wanted to be...
– Mahana resident Arthur Van Resseghem remembers his first time at Mahana commune