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Life on the Road
By Andrea Kreuzhage, producer/director of 1000 Journals
(from the 2008 Newport Beach Film Festival)
1,000 blank journals are passed from hand to hand, collecting stories, pictures, collages - slices of the lives they touch. One came back, filled. Where in the world are the other 999?
My cameraman, Ralph Kaechele, and I traveled all over the United States, through Canada, France, Germany, Croatia, Finland, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Australia and Singapore to find these journals. Over the course of two years, we spent nearly 30 weeks on location, sleeping in any comfort and safety our budget and the dollar exchange rate could afford. Come rain, hurricane, snowstorm or shine, we were on the road, tracking 999 journals and meeting the people who added to them.
Not that monuments and landmarks aren't worth a visit, but our destinations in these countries were living rooms. We met our subjects in housing projects, suburbs, on campus, at a backyard BBQ party, in the sanctuary of their church, on their way to work. After this experience, I'm not sure I can or want to travel again as a tourist, ever. We got to shop, eat, walk, drink and party with the indigenous. We met their communities, their children, parents, buddies. If we had questions about local customs, we didn't have to consult a guide book; we could simply soak it up, and, if in doubt, ask. |
If you travel and want to reach your destination, you have to leave something behind: literally, your own bed and favorite pillow, your cherished routines, your home-cooked comfort food. Our first few trips on this film took us further and further away from Los Angeles, our home town. Northern California, Washington State, toward the East Coast, a side trip to Florida. End of January 2006, we began to film outside the United States and flew to Sydney, Australia. It was then and there that I realized I had grown another set of eyes in the back of my head. An innocent scout of the West Hollywood Farmer's Market required dodging police, private guards and suspicious patrons. But after a few days in Sydney, I noticed I hadn't seen even a single police car. In Adelaide, the guards of the Art Gallery of South Australia waited patiently until we had finished our interview, well after closing time. We weren't considered a nuisance or threat, and our motives weren't questioned. Even in Singapore, one of the most policed countries we visited, we were able to explain and negotiate our way into any location, not just be summarily thrown out.
While living and working in post-9/11 America, we learned to be suspicious, and we turned into suspects at the same time. People with cameras and notebooks, lingering at public places - who are they and what do they want? I learned to leave behind my fears, exit plans, the phone number of my attorney. We learned to trust again, even the police.
At the best of times, code green times, traveling with a lot of film equipment isn't easy. Excess baggage doesn't even begin to describe what we were lugging around. But the movie gods must have been smiling upon us. Nothing got lost or delayed; the only item confiscated was Ralph's Leatherman utility knife, and of all the many flights we took, we missed only one. |
And now we are traveling again, first to the Berlin International Film Festival and our European Premiere in the section Berlinale Special, next to Indianapolis, San Francisco, Newport Beach, then Delray Beach, Florida, and on, from film festival to film festival. But this time, we have a new set of concerns: Will the airline still exist, and, if yes, will their airplanes be grounded for safety checks? Never mind; it's all worth it. If you want to work on these borders between us, cross them. -MPM
1000 Journals opens at the Roxie Film Center in San Francisco on August 1.
For more on 1000 Journals, visit MPM's Still Life feature, "1000 Journals."
Photos are courtesy of the filmmaker. |
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