Traveling from New Zealand to Canada’s Pacific Northwest and from Rome to Burning Man, the film follows a selection of people whose creative pursuits aren’t driven by money or fame. Perhaps in keeping with this ethic of modesty, none of them are identified by their names. Each one explains the values, traditions and ambitions that guide them.

The most conventional — or perhaps the most professional — is an artist organizing an exhibition at a museum, where patrons are given a flower that they then pass along to strangers. It’s interesting to see how uncomfortable such random acts of generosity can make their intended recipients. In other cases, though, there is a cultural context to help the gifts on their way, like Burning Man with a blend of high-tech and hippie utopianism, or the potlatch, an ancient custom organized around the redistribution of goods and the affirmation of communal ties.