Film documents cross-country trip

Jens Peter Larson set out last August to discover America. The months he spent on the Spanish island of Mallorca had shown him the negative views many foreigners hold of his home country, and he wanted to broaden his perspective of the land and its people.

“I wanted to find out what I’m being associated with as an American,” said Larson, 25.

He and a friend, Vin Todd, of Seattle, spent four months traveling around the country with a video camera and a beat-up 1966 van they bought for $70. The pair traveled from Seattle to San Francisco to the Burning Man festival, an annual weeklong music, arts and culture celebration in the Nevada desert.

From there it was off to Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole, Wyo., then to Chicago, New York City, New Orleans, Texas and finally Los Angeles.

And now, after producing a documentary film chronicling the trip, the Post Falls resident is headed to Shanghai.

Larson and Todd’s film, called “America: The Journey,” was accepted at the ninth annual Shanghai International Film Festival. Larson will travel to China for the festival, which begins June 17, then travel around the Shanghai area for a week or so, staying at hostels, meeting people and getting to know the country.

The trip sounds similar to the one chronicled in Larson’s film, which he said is supposed to give an unabashed look at life in the United States.

College students drinking at a fraternity party in Wisconsin. Young people break dancing on the sidewalks of New York City. Freestyle street rappers in Atlanta. An anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. A guy who calls himself “Big Tex” driving around the back roads of rural Texas.

The film takes snapshots all over the country, with Larson and Todd serving as “ground-level guides,” Larson said.

“We wanted to take the trip everyone wishes they took when they were our age,” he said.

Larson had film editing experience, he said, and Todd a knack for figuring out what makes people tick. All the music used in the film was gathered on the trip.

The two interviewed people in every city they visited. Some were angry about the country’s political state. Others were oblivious to politics and focused only on music and having a good time. A young man in Jackson Hole calling himself “Hippy Gomez” told the two about his brush with the law while trying to find marijuana in Mexico.

Marijuana use is prevalent throughout the film. Close-ups of joints being rolled and people blowing smoke rings are scattered throughout. Near the end of the trip – and the film – Larson is shown waiting in a graffiti-covered Atlanta neighborhood for a man “to get me some herb.”

“It’s been 20 minutes. I think I just got jacked, man,” he laments to the camera.

Larson said he tried to keep the film clean, declining to include any graphic sex scenes or violence, but “I couldn’t help it if my camera was rolling and some girl walks by with her top off.”

That happened a lot at the Burning Man festival, Larson said, and the film shows all.

“I think it’s good for people to see that. That’s how our generation lives,” he added.

The first month and a half of the trip took them all the way to New York City, where a shortage of funds grounded them for about two months. This unexpected delay in the trip is reflected in the movie, Larson said, as the number of interviews with New Yorkers pales in comparison with other cities visited.

“We did have to set things aside,” he said. “It was survival mode.”

Larson and Todd parked the van on a street in Greenwich Village and stayed about two months, working as paid canvassers for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successful re-election campaign.

The jobs gave them a look at the city they never would have gotten before, he said, but it also tested their fortitude and tried their good nature.

“We got to a point where we were like, ‘OK, it’s getting really grimy sleeping in this van,’ ” Larson said.

But their jobs with Bloomberg paid off, he said, giving the pair enough money to drive to Los Angeles, with plenty of stops along the way.

The film generally is accepted more by a younger audience, Larson said, but there are scenes that appeal to everyone, such as the interview with a longtime New Orleans resident surveying the damage Hurricane Katrina did to his home.

Larson said he hopes the Shanghai International Film Festival will trigger interest in the film that will lead to more money for future projects. But he doesn’t want to charge for the film, saying whoever wants to see it should be able to see it for free.