American Freedoms

The United States has long been portrayed as a place where individuals can be rewarded for hard work, for taking advantage of opportunity, and for fighting to protect fundamental rights and freedoms. How do people who live in the U.S. see themselves fitting into this popular narrative? And what "freedoms" do they consider essential to their life here?

I am recording conversations with hundreds of people nationwide and asking them to weigh in on a familiar story about freedom and opportunity in the United States. What opportunities or privileges has life in the U.S. helped them to enjoy, and what has been denied? How have individuals and communities here been helped or hindered in securing political, cultural, economic, and personal freedoms? Are there basic rights or liberties that should be protected for anyone who calls the country their home, and do some Americans take freedoms for granted? Why has their always been conflict in the U.S. over the definition of rights and privileges, over setting their boundaries, and over the efforts to guarantee them? And why, despite this, do people often describe their aspirations—and their defense of freedoms—as part of an "American" tradition with shared goals and unified purpose?

The narrative in American Freedoms will be drawn from the interviews and so presented, literally, by the individuals who choose to participate. They will do the talking, without "experts" offering commentary or passing judgement on freedom's meanings and histories. And because so many people are involved, no one will get extensive screen time or have their views or stories highlighted. The film will offer a patchwork of conversations about a wide range of ideas, experiences, and convictions, many that viewers will find familiar and others that might surprise or confuse. It asks us to put competing ideas about freedoms in America—those imagined, aspired to, and realized—in conversation with our own.

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