Just after the national election in November, 2004, one of us was sitting on a city bus when he overheard a woman remark in frustration: “America is nothing but New York and Los Angeles…that’s it.” We were struck by her despair; was this really true? There is a huge chunk of continent between these two cities, and it constitutes most of this country—a country that we have recently realized we do not wholly understand. Almost every American high school student is introduced to the concept of the American dream through history and literature. What is there, within the American “dream” that could purport to unite all Americans? What does an upper-crust New York “intellectual” possibly have in common with a farmer in rural Idaho, and what ties either of these individuals to a suburban child or a housewife in Oregon or a New Orleans jazz musician or a metropolitan drag queen? It is our belief that the answer to this question lies in the freedom—indeed the urgency—of all Americans to pursue happiness.
During winter break we set aside an evening to do some preliminary filming for a summer project. We drove out with a video camera and scoured streets and train stations, prowled delis and Dunkin’ Donuts, looking for people to talk to—or rather listen to. Raymond was one such person, a valet at a local restaurant; he was glad to have some company as he stood there in the cold. We spent a good while together talking about his fear of travel in the wake of 9/11, his daughter’s love of art, true love versus plain old sex, and the nightly cup of tea with his wife, before he really opened up: “I’ve always said, if I could just find an island where I could provide my own food and not need money or anything, just my family—that would be true happiness for me—paradise.”
“That’s exactly what we’re trying to find—that island,” one of us told Raymond.
This summer project—American Backyard—is an exploratory study of the American “pursuit of happiness.” It is a research expedition across America that will synthesize documentary film, oral history, journalistic writing, and photography to focus on this uniquely American phenomenon. For the project (June 5th until August 10th) we will travel from the east coast to the west coast and back, using four weeks to make each trip, with three weeks in northern California to write, edit video, and consolidate research.
So we will travel across the country and ask Americans of all demographics what they seek, what would make them happiest, thereby engaging in conversation about what they find significant in daily life. If it be a certain place, we will visit and capture it on film, video, and in writing. Likewise if happiness come from an activity or a cause or a person, or even simply the pursuit itself. Our hope is to gather the raw materials to begin to develop a new, fuller idiom of discussion about the American pursuit of happiness. The project, in this sense, will be a sort of time capsule from the opening of the 21st century. Its ultimate objective would be not a thesis proved or paradigm illustrated, but an attempt to assemble a mosaic from which, with patience and luck, we can refine the ways we talk about the experience and values which Americans share.
At the conclusion of the project we will have produced a feature-length documentary on American happiness and its pursuits, complemented by a traveling journal and a portfolio of photography. Each of these will be available to the public on this frequently-updated website. Most important, however, we will have completed a once-in-a-lifetime journey into a country that we often take for granted. And we just might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what inspires us to keep pursuing—as Raymond does, as we all do—the happiness that in all its myriad forms would realize the promise of America.