Greenaway is the portrait of a wealthy couple belonging to a largely hidden part of American culture, the last vestiges of upper crust Edwardianism. Set on their private island in Connecticut (Greenaway Island), the film displays an unusual intimacy with its subjects because the filmmaker is one of the couple’s six children. It is all there, the fun and heartache of growing up surrounded by luxury, yet removed from any consistent parental contact.

The focus of the film is the filmmaker’s parents - their perspective on their lifestyle and their relationship to the outside world. With considerable charm, humor and intelligence they cover a diverse range of subjects: the meaning of wealth, the implications of a vanishing servant class, designing Olympic class sailboats, LSD therapy, and the hidden agenda behind politics. On a deeper level, they argue for the preservation of old values: the beauty of traditions, the safety of marriage, and the critical importance of religion as the basis for morals and ethics.

The film becomes particularly poignant towards the end as the couple reveals their sense of being an endangered species. With considerable social and political apprehension, they await the collapse of the United States, storing enormous quantities of food and water in their basement. As they comb the world for a safer place to live, they are revealed to be not only the perpetrators of a lavish lifestyle, but also its prisoners. There are more islands here than just - Greenaway.