11 December 2007
New Film on America To Be Shown at U.S. Consulates, Embassies
Images portray diverse population and landscapes of the United States
Washington -- Visitors to U.S. consulates and embassies soon will be able to watch a short film that introduces them to America’s people and landscapes, conveying the simple message that America is a diverse, interesting and friendly place.
The four-minute film, I Am America, was commissioned by the nonprofit organization Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA) as a gift to the U.S. government, with the aim of creating a welcoming impression of the United States for international travelers. It will be screened in the waiting areas of more than 200 U.S. embassies and consulates.
“People overseas think we’ve been barricading ourselves” since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, “but it’s not true,” says Cari E. Guittard, BDA executive vice president. “We want people to come here.”
The idea for the film emerged from brainstorming sessions involving Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, her staffers and BDA. U.S. officials wanted to correct misperceptions of the United States as an unfriendly and insular place, Guittard said.
BDA -- a nonprofit, private-sector task force that enlists the U.S. business community to enhance cooperation, respect, and mutual understanding across cultural and national borders -- “worked seamlessly with the State Department” in developing the film, said Guittard. “It was something we could contribute” to the department’s ongoing mission to introduce the world to “the real America,” which seldom is represented by the media or the entertainment industry.
The film, which was produced by the firm GSD&M Idea City in Austin, Texas, takes viewers on a tour of the United States that reveals the country’s immense variety, both geographic and demographic.
Featured landscapes include red-rock canyons with dramatic cloud formations passing overhead, the glittering sculptural forms of New York City’s glass and metal skyscrapers, and fields of ripe wheat. Also, a classic New England lighthouse is silhouetted atop a cliff, rising above the sea. An aerial shot of Mount Rushmore scans the colossal faces of four U.S. presidents carved into the granite hills of South Dakota. In the Alaskan wilderness, a polar bear rolls in the tundra.
In response to the question “Who is America?” individuals of different ages, ethnicities and backgrounds step forward and respond, “I am America.” These U.S. citizens are of African, Asian, South Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, European and American Indian origin; among them are a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf, a bearded Orthodox Jewish man, a multiracial group of students, a man in a wheelchair, a deaf woman using sign language and a family whose daughter has Down syndrome.
The montage of faces concludes with an American Indian man who says: “Welcome to America.” He is Louis Beareagle of the Mescalero Apache tribe. While the other people featured in the film were eager to participate, Beareagle initially was reluctant, said Mike Blair, executive vice president and creative director of GSD&M Idea City. “He had to consult his tribal council and get their approval first. But he was comfortable with it, once the tribal council agreed to the proposal.”
The final shot -- of the Statue of Liberty -- is a visual metaphor for a country that has absorbed immigrants and refugees since its founding.
“We wanted images that were simple, tranquil and poignant,” said Blair. The film’s music complements those images. It features a variation on the song America the Beautiful, scored by musician Danny Levin, who performed on most of the instruments, and produced by an Austin-based company called Tequila Mockingbird. “The music has a beautiful, peaceful feeling to it,” Blair said.
Although I Am America follows quickly on the heels of the short Disney film Welcome: Portraits of America, which also is on view at U.S. embassies and consulates, the two films were made independently of each other -- and there are notable differences between them. Both films were gifts to the U.S. government, but I Am America unfolds at a leisurely pace “and has a very soothing effect,” said Guittard. The Disney film has a more exuberant tone. (See "New Film Introduces Visitors to the United States and Its People.")
If I Am America helps the United States to “show a welcoming face to the world,” it will have achieved its goal, Guittard said.
“People go where they’re invited,” she said. With this film, “we’re telling people that the United States welcomes them with open arms.”
I Am America is available on America.gov.
I Am America