A Simple Machine Screening and Q & A
About
A Simple Machine , the award-winning debut feature film from Mark Alan Hoffman, makes its way to The Regent Theatre! Shot entirely in Portland in luminous black and white, A Simple Machine is a deeply human story about economic independence, personal freedom, and the cost of wanting less in a culture built on more. In a time of housing instability, digital saturation, and cultural polarization, Hoffman’s film offers something rare: a grounded, thoughtful counterpoint rooted in the textures, contradictions, and creative resilience of Portland, while offering universal resonance in its thematic content. Inspired by Evan P. Schneider’s novel A Simple Machine, Like the Lever (Propeller Books), a modern cult classic within Pacific Northwest literary circles, the film follows Nick Allander (Richard Blackmon), a recent college graduate drowning in debt who quietly dismantles his own life in pursuit of radical frugality and self-reliance,
