Eleven students. Four months. One bus.
Sounds like “Road Rules” meets “Survivor,”
only instead of being in front of the cameras,
these students are behind them. Most of the
group is from Simon’s Rock College (a small
liberal arts school in Massachusetts),
although other members attend Duke and
the University of Chicago. Born of late-night
chats about politics and the upcoming elec
tion, the group decided to take their conver
sation to the road.
Their adventure is called The American
Story Project. Student volunteers are inter
viewing people in 32 communities across the
country to find out what influences their
political beliefs. The interviews will then
appear on the group's web site, american
story.org, and this winter the site will be
redesigned so that users can access film
footage, interview transcripts and still photos
based on whatever topic interests them—
from gun control to skateboarding laws.
teers waiting to receive documentary I
footage to upload onto the site. f|
A project this big requires two main II
things: organization and money.
American Story has both. They’ve been
planning their trip since February, and
they have a lead car that precedes the ®
bus by a day. The people in the lead car
(they rotate) set up interviews and make
hotel arrangements. The money—
$100,000 of it—comes from a combina
tion of investors: some from Simon’s Rock
faculty members, some from grants and
funds, and some comes from Eastman
Kodak and Paul Newman’s daughter, who
heads up the Newman’s Own foods branch.
The bus is packed with Newman’s Own
snack foods—the group has already gone
through 50 pounds of “Fig Newmans."
Their converted school bus is a mobile
workstation. It has work tables and bench
seats, bunk beds, coolers on rollers that
“We’re looking to make connections between private
lives, community life and local and national issues.
We ask people about their past, like where they grew
up, and that leads into current events and politics.”
slide out from under
seats, bikes under tarps,
tables that convert to
beds, and pieces of wire
and electronic equip
ment everywhere.
The students are doing all the work for
the project on the road: they have a network
server hooked into the bus’ generator, cellu
lar modems in their laptops, and other volun
Steamtunnels spoke to three of the proj
ect volunteers—pictured below—at their
stop in Boston, the first leg of their journey.
From left: American Story Project volunteers Paige Jennings, Cheil Stefanski and Mark Liffiton.
Joel Veak
wammmmr/ msmam
STS: Why put this project together?
ASP: We wanted to give people a platform
that’s not covered in the media, provide
space for people to have a say without
reducing it to sound bites.
STS: What do you hope to find out with
the interviews?
ASP: Well, we have no set list of questions, •
but we do have a set interview style. We’re
looking to make connections between pri
vate lives, community life and local and
national issues. We ask people about their
past, like where they grew up, and that leads
into current events and politics. We want to
get a broad spectrum of ideas, not neces
sarily enter into a discussion about specific
candidates.
STS: What's the response been like?
ASP: It’s funny—some people think there’s
no connection [in their lives to politics].
Then you ask them about skateboarding, if
they’re into that, and where they can and
can’t skateboard. They see how politics
affects their everyday life and community.
STS: How did you go about choosing
what communities you were visiting?
ASP: We’re trying to emphasize areas that
aren’t in the media and don't get as much
exposure. For instance, San Francisco and
San Jose are in the media, but Oakland
doesn’t get that much [media attention],
STS: What was the motivation for the
interactive web site?
ASP: This whole thing is native to the
Internet. It can’t be done normally because
it’s a non-linear documentary. We wanted
the users to be able to follow the lines of
content that interest them on the site. And
we want it to be a catalyst for communica
tion—not issue politics. This is about lives,
places and communities.
STS: What about the political apathy
that’s seemed to grip people lately?
ASP: We’re obviously not apathetic. We’re
getting out there, trying to get into things.
This whole project was born out of our frus
trations with the political system. •