Squid, deer and owls be damned: Faythe Levine’s forthcoming documentary Handmade Nation seems like it will easily transcend the insufferable aspects of D.I.Y., based on the 20-minute preview that Levine presented August 7 at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. Levine, who co-owns Milwaukee’s Paper Boat Boutique and Gallery, says the final version of the film will be released in 2009. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer here: Princeton Architectural Press is publishing a companion book in November 2008.

Levine visited 15 cities and interviewed more than 80 crafters for Handmade Nation, which, she emphasizes, has been self-funded (with help from the D.I.Y. community). I’m apparently the last person in the universe to find out about Knitta Please, a street art collective that tags up Houston with knitted cozies, but their hilarious segment left me itching to see all 80-plus (!) hours of Levine’s footage. (You may also recognize interviewees such as Jenny Hart and Nikki McClure.) 

After the preview, artist Lindsay Obermeyer moderated a Q&A with Levine; Shannon Stratton, director of ThreeWalls; and Deborah Maris Lader, founder of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. Some audience members were so eager to share their own crafting experiences that they took the discussion a little off track, but they raised important questions like: Why is the D.I.Y. movement mostly (though not all) white and female—and all middle-class? What makes craft political? What do you do when commercial pressures warp your feelings about the ironic plush toys you make for fun? Do contemporary D.I.Y.ers acknowledge older generations of craftspeople? I don’t expect Handmade Nation to have all the answers, but I can hardly wait to see what it adds to the debate.