Let’s go back to the events of January 6, 2021. How did that impact you?
Obviously, this is a very controversial subject. But what I could see is that these were people who thought they were fighting for something and that they believed in what they were fighting for. Now, I never believe in violence. Across the board, no matter what side — left, right, black, white, whatever — I don’t believe in violence of any kind. However, I could see that they were fighting for something they believed in. So how come their way was so different than my way? I’ve grown up in a country that felt very united most of my 61 years. So wanting to really find out what happened here, I really didn’t understand. I knew that there were differences in our way of thinking around the country, but I really have never experienced this division like what we’re seeing now.
Who funded your documentary project?
I did.
All on your own?
Yes.
The bus, cross country, everything?
One hundred percent.
Have you released how much it cost?
Yes, publicly, I’ve released it. It’s $1.5 million.
$1.5 million?
Mm-hmm.
Are you affiliated with any political party or any…?
I am not. No.
So what would make someone, an ordinary citizen with no political agenda, spend $1.5 million of her own money on this?
I lost my mom during Covid — not from Covid, but actually from a very aggressive cancer that took hold very early during Covid. It was a very difficult experience. And my mom was a person who, when she saw something, she would do something about it. And that apple didn’t fall very far from the tree. So I used my money for my country. Would I have donated it somewhere? Maybe. Would I have done something with the money that I’ve had? Yes. I happened to make a film.
During this cross-country trek, how did you decide where you would go?
We spent the summer of 2021 on Zoom calls recruiting subject matter experts. We had some people in geographical locations mapped out anyways. Honestly, how we were able to coordinate that with the bus trip and make that all work is really a miracle, but we did. We had some pinpoints on the map because of who we knew we were going to talk to. So then we just filled in the rest in between.
And what are some of the places you visited?
We went along the southern part of the country … started in California, went through Arizona. We stopped in Tucson. We went through Texas. Texas is a very wide state, so we had interviews in Austin, but we did a lot of voices of people along the way in Texas in several places. El Paso. I know we did quite a bit of shooting in Louisiana, then down through Florida, all the way down to Miami … came up the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Boston. So we were at Duke in North Carolina, and then we got to Brooklyn, Washington, DC, Boston and Philadelphia.
And that’s where it ended, in the northeast?
Yeah.
What was your takeaway?
People were lovely. Nobody made us feel uncomfortable. No one made us feel threatened in any way. Everybody that came up to us was really thoughtful. One of the things I like to say is that there’s nothing that we filmed that we could not have put in the film to stay with our creative direction, which was non-incendiary, non-partisan, hope and solutions. So everybody was really pleasant, and it was a really amazing experience. I’m not sure that that bus trip would go the same today, but that’s how it still was in 2021.
What did you learn about the country?
I’m just always curious why people settle where they settle. I live in Laguna Beach. It’s not hard to like that place. But people live all kinds of places. They live all kinds of ways. They settle where they settle, and they settle in their communities. … I’ll say I was surprised how much racism there still is, how much sexism there still is. I just really didn’t experience much of that in my life, I have to tell you. So that’s been disappointing. And then just being in other parts of the country, I see it more on the ground, I guess.
What did you learn about the country and people as it relates to media?
Well, they’re really frustrated. However, I think that at the time, it still felt like something that was being done to us. And I am trying to communicate that this is something that we can have some voice in.
What do you mean by that?
Well, it’s such an onslaught, and I’m mostly speaking of social media. I still believe that journalism over the years has always been journalism. It’s had its ups and downs. It has its reputations. But journalism over the course of our country has always had the same purpose. What’s made things complicated is social media, and then we just really don’t know how much other countries are interfering with our media. We just really don’t know. So that’s a dynamic that I didn’t grow up with. I grew up with the three guys on TV, right? But now, because there’s so much, it’s coming at us, and we just have to take it. Whereas we’re still the customers here. We’re still the consumers, and we will always have a voice. So how can we make that voice heard by media?
Did you come up with any solutions?
I’ve done about 30 screenings around the country and in all kinds of different states. What I would like people to do after they see the film is to take one, two, maybe three things from the film and incorporate into their lives, like checking on your confirmation bias, critical thinking skills, media literacy. These are the solutions. I didn’t make them up; they’ve been around forever. But just maybe a reminder that we do have some power here. We do have some control. But it is upon us to take that responsibility.
