Closer to the Dream (2010)

Winter 2008: An unrelenting roar has been mounting for several months in America, resonating all the way to Paris, where African-American expatriate filmmaker, Guetty Felin has been living a self-imposed exile for the last 20 years. Unable to resist the seething political atmosphere back home, she embarks French husband, Hervé Cohen (co-director) and their two sons 15 year-old Yeelen and Joakim 11, on a journey to bear witness to the historical grassroots movement that is uniting Americans across party and racial lines. And so, what began as a video diary of the political coming of age of their sons, would later turn into an electoral road movie across the country in the quest of rediscovering America and redefining oneself in it. For weeks on, as the mainstream media, political pundits spend airtime dissecting and fragmenting the American electorate, the couple journey across the country unearthing the compelling stories of an array of charismatic individuals, turning their lenses to a mosaic of American faces and lives: Congresswoman, lawyer, public defender, nurse, street musician, spoken word poet, punk rockers, environmentalist, rabbi, gay activists and a mellifluous flow of other individuals breathe life into the film. From Houston, Texas to Chapel Hill, North Carolina and from Roseburg, Oregon, to Boca Raton, Florida, via the Southside of Chicago, Illinois, we see Republicans and Democrats coming together to rethink and redefine democracy in America. The encounters, interwoven with sequences of Senator Obama at rallies but also town hall meetings interacting on a very personal level with the audience, help to move the narration forward, providing a new set of lenses through which the filmmakers view America today. By the end of the film, the couple discovers an answer to their question: Shall we return to America and engage in the changes to come? Shot entirely handheld, the strength of the film lies in its insider and outsider gaze, and is a powerful testament to the resilience of the American people and their desire to engage the country in a bold new direction.