Film asks ‘The American Question’
Do you share the same values as your neighbor?
If someone queried you about truths and values that you hold to be self-evident, would you and your neighbors see eye to eye? That’s the question “The American Question” (produced by Guy Seemann and directed by James Kicklighter) is intended to answer when it hits the festival circuit this year.
The documentary film challenges Americans to stop blaming others about the current social and political climate and to question how their own decisions and actions shape the country. The film has taken Seemann and Kicklighter around the nation to ask questions about family, money and civics with the objective of getting viewers to consider whether divisions in our society stem from group dynamics or if we’re all part of the problem as individuals.
In a series of interviews, the film features dozens of Americans from across political, economic and social spectrums. A teaser for the production was released in November 2017.
“American values are written down in the founding documents: the Constitution, Declaration of Independence,” Seemann said. “Those values—concepts of opportunity and equality, different types of freedoms, concepts of hard work and the American dream … those are concepts they defined then and we still talk about today. Now, the real question is how are people defining those values for themselves today? Are they defining them in the context that the founders had, or are people redefining them to the point where they see someone else as an enemy of those values?”
People exist now in their own bubbles of isolation, where it’s much easier for folks to peg others as enemies because “we’re only listening to things, finding things and sharing things that only substantiate what we already believe,” Kicklighter said.
To break out of these bubbles, the duo believe, the majority of Americans need to agree and adhere to a baseline of values they think are the same as those of their neighbors.
“The American Question” is that wake-up call to the country, said Seemann—a “cautionary tale” to the masses to not regress,
but to progress. Kicklighter and Seemann use values as the foundation that joins individuals and community together. Less individual mindset, more connection. Less division, more community.
“Once you agree that you share the same value system with your neighbor, that’s when you actually see progress, that’s when you have mutual respect, and the community comes back together,” Seemann said. “If you can convince people this is a national concept, that everyone is pretty much in the same boat—that’s when you won’t want to be in your own bubble. You will challenge your own perspective and negative viewpoints.”
The documentary team doesn’t consider its film revolutionary. Seemann and Kicklighter said academics like Robert Putnam, author of “Bowling Alone,” and Charles Murray, author of “Coming Apart,” have been foreshadowing the current political and social climate for years, but Kicklighter and Seeman are making a film with the hope that it will reach more eyes.
After the film is completed this year, the pair would like a theatrical release in smaller locales as well as larger ones. The goal is to have enough of an impact, by melding data and emotion, to start a national conversation, Seemann and Kicklighter said.
“It is really tough to get more than 300 million people pointed in one direction and on the same page, but the value system continues to push us in the right direction,” Seemann said. “We want people to recognize (what needs to be done): Secure the founding values, execute them more properly. We all need to believe in this concept of freedom and equality for everyone, to move forward— we’ve been doing it incrementally for hundreds of years, so let’s keep pushing.” Kicklighter agrees. “If you push the needle a little bit, that can make a positive impact on society,” he said. “My hope with this film is to give the audience an opportunity to maybe change the way their thought process is (just an inch), so they can hear someone else.”
“We’re only listening to things, finding things and sharing things that only substantiate what we already believe.”
—James Kicklighter