Within the thousands of neighbourhoods in the five boroughs of New York City, there are 8,000 miles of streets, bridges, parks, beaches, and cemeteries to explore. For the past six years, 37 year-old Matt Green has been on a mission to walk every single one of them.

Go ahead and ask. He won’t mind. People ask him all the time. “Why?” He really doesn’t know, other than that he loves the city, wants to be doing this, and for reasons he can’t put his finger on he feels that he’s doing something important.

How does he find the time to do all this? He doesn’t have a job. “Are you like independently wealthy or something?” one skeptical onlooker asked. “No, I’m… I’m independently homeless”.

While following Green as he walks, couchsurfs, and catsits his ways around the city, director Jeremy Workman captures way too much beauty, detail, and history to be absorbed properly in a single viewing. And his documentary The World Before Your Feet will make you want to absorb every detail. That’s what Green’s journey and Workman’s film are all about. The beauty of travelling on foot, according to Green, is that you notice things. And with nothing to do but walk and take notice, he never misses a chance to stop to smell the roses, read the signs, and meet the people.

The World Before Your Feet can seem a little episodic at times but how can it not? Green has six years worth of photos, stories, and research to share and this delightful and inspiring documentary does its best to show and tell as much of it as it can. Green and Workman answer most of the hows and whys as well as they can but really this is a film about enjoying the moment which offers a whole lot of moments of its own for us to enjoy.