A documentary by Oliver Hodge. Rated PG. Opens Friday, February 22, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

Fast-paced doc Garbage Warrior tracks an architect who used junk to rebuild those post-tsunami homes.

In the 1970s, architect Michael Reynolds began using the raw materials of the Arizona desert—including such refuse as cans, bottles, and old tires—to fashion houses that really fit with their sunbaked environs. He continued at the expense of his career, and for his idealistic trouble, he was eventually shut down by local and federal governments. But the scruffy-haired guy’s fortunes (and those of this somewhat tossed-together film) changed when he and his crew volunteered to help post-tsunami island dwellers in Southeast Asia, and then post–Hurricane Katrina Louisianans, rebuild their lives.

The fast-moving documentary, directed by Britain’s Oliver Hodge, could have explained a lot more about how Reynolds’s self-contained “Earthships” actually work, because they’re so far off the normal sewage and electricity grids (although details can be found at garbagewarrior.com/). Instead, it spends a lot of time focusing on our hero’s battles with officials—a slightly tedious process that conveys just how tiresome it is to change thinking from within the system.

Despite—or maybe because of—many errors along the way, Reynolds’s innovations end up bringing a measure of hope to our narrowing environmental future. This is particularly true in the Andaman Islands section near the end of the film, when we witness the architect’s ideas being put into immediate use, to the delight of stricken villagers. Apparently, this real-life turn of events had the same effect on U.S. agencies, and Reynold’s licence was restored.

Garbage Warrior won the people’s choice award for most popular international nonfiction film at last fall’s Vancouver International Film Festival.