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As
luck should have it, the folks on the Res, Palm Pictures,
and Perrier voting committee have selected my film proposal,
and so I am one of the five filmmakers given 10 days to
traverse the USA from NY to LA in 10 days (June 14, 2002
- June 24, 2002) and shoot the film.
"The
film" is "Tourist Pictures". There is indeed
a theme going on here.
As
son of a photographer and videographer (of weddings &
bar/bat mitzvahs), I have been weaned on these record-keeping
contraptions from an early age. And not unlike most of us,
I found myself armed with camera whenever I went on holiday.
In
the summer of 1995, I took a 5 week road trip around the
USA, and somewhere along the way I began pointing my camera
the other way, at the tourists taking pictures. I guess
back then it was a way of distancing myself from the stereotypically
geeky stigma associated with the tourist. But I also thought
it to be entertaining.
In
2000, I launched TouristPictures.com.
Launched meaning it's a glorified personal home page, or
as I see it, a place to park the work I deem worthy enough
public consumption and self exploitation. However, the name
"Tourist Pictures" implies two things, but I leave
that for you to puzzle out.
So
when the "Perrier Across America" contest came
to my knowledge, I figured this was an ideal opportunity
to make the definitive film of the concept I happened upon
in 1995.
The
journey has been completed and even though it was all a
blur, there are plenty of pictures and video to jog the
memory. The folks we met were wonderful, especially when
they understood what we were doing, everyone was genuinely
interested.
Since
the interviews yielded a variety of concepts about photo-taking,
it was a delight to let those ideas dictate the movement
and tempo of the film, hence nothing is predictable, the
film is a journey in itself, a dynamic photo album, a jaunt
in which there are always surprises and where the tourists
are characters and the film crew are tourists.
ROUTE:
New York • St. Louis Arch • Mt. Rushmore •
Yellowstone
Grand Canyon • Las Vegas • LA
THE
TOURISTS:
Stefan Nadelman : director, video, driver
Michael Reid : photographer, musician, driver
Mike Reid (foreground),
Stefan Nadelman (background)
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