America's Heart & Soul (2004)

Director:

Louis Schwartzberg

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg hits the road to capture America's people and its natural beauty.

Plot Keywords:

African American | Rock Band | Marathon | Rock Climbing | USA

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

George Woodard	...	Dairy Farmer, Waterbury, Vermont
Charles Jimmie Sr.	...	Tlingit Indian Elder, Klukwan, Alaska
The Vasquez Brothers	...	Salsa Dancers, Los Angeles, California
Frank Pino	...	Rock Band, Waltham, Massachusetts
David Pino	...	Rock Band, Waltham, Massachusetts
John 'Yac' Yacobellis	...	Bike Messenger, New York, New York
Patty Wagstaff	...	Acrobatic Flyer, St. Augustine, Florida
Paul Stone	...	Explosive Art, Creede, Colorado
Ed Holt	...	Wine Grower, Santa Maria, California
Weirton Steelworkers	...	Themselves, Weirton, West Virginia
Cecil Williams	...	Himself - Glide Church, San Francisco, California (as Rev. Cecil Williams)
Janice Miriktani	...	Executive Director, Glide Church, San Francisco, California
David Krakauer	...	Klezmer Clarinetist, New York, New York
James Andrews	...	Jazz Musician, New Orleans, Louisiana
Trombone Shorty	...	Jazz Musician, New Orleans, Louisiana
Marc Savoy	...	Cajun Musician, Eunice, Louisiana
Ann Savoy	...	Cajun Musician, Eunice, Louisiana
Daniel Klennert	...	Himself
Art Car Festival	...	Themselves, Berkeley, California
Michael Bennett	...	Olympic Boxer, Chicago, Illinois
Erik Weihenmayer	...	Blind Climber, Ouray, Colorado
Mosie Burks	...	Gospel Singer, Jackson, Mississippi
Ace Barnes	...	Oil Well Fire Fighter, Livingston, Texas
James Tuppin	...	Oil Well Fire Fighter, Livingston, Texas
Ben Cohen	...	Founder, Ben & Jerry's, Williston, Vermont
Minny Yancy	...	Rug Weaver, Berea, Kentucky
Roudy Roudebush	...	Horse Wrangler, Telluride, Colorado
Rick Hoyt	...	Boston Marathon, Boston, Massachusetts
Dick Hoyt	...	Boston Marathon, Boston, Massachusetts
Amelia Rudolph	...	Founder, Bandaloop Cliff Dancers, Muir Beach, California
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harrod Blank	...	Himself (uncredited)

Directed by
Louis Schwartzberg		(as Louie Schwartzberg)

Produced by
Grady Candler	....	field producer
Jake Eberts	....	executive producer
Brian E. Frankish	....	field producer
Louis Schwartzberg	....	producer (as Louie Schwartzberg)
Vincent Ueber	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Joel McNeely

Cinematography by
Louis Schwartzberg

Film Editing by
Brian Funck
Tom McGah

Art Department
Kylee Kennedy	....	graphic artist

Sound Department
Kent Gibson	....	sound designer
Kent Gibson	....	sound re-recording mixer
Steve Morantz	....	sound recordist
Brian Whitlock	....	sound

Visual Effects by
John Daro	....	digital intermediate editor
Steve Shaw	....	digital intermediate colourist

Camera and Electrical Department
David Dowell	....	assistant camera
Steve Koster	....	camera operator: Spacecam
John Sheeren	....	first assistant camera

Animation Department
Duane Conder	....	initial title compositing & animation

Editorial Department
Ryan Langerud	....	post-production assistant
John Nicolard	....	digital intermediate supervisor
Jeff Smithwick	....	film timer
Sarina-Marie Volman	....	post-production coordinator
Walter Volpatto	....	digital intermediate artist
Jeremy Weinstein	....	assistant editor (home video)

Music Department
Matt Kierscht	....	music consultant
Brian Leff	....	music coordinator
Peter Rotter	....	orchestra contractor
James Thatcher	....	musician: french horn
Joshua Winget	....	music editor
Bryan Pezzone	....	musician (uncredited)

Other crew
Rebecca Edelson	....	script clearance administrator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Blacklight Films (BlackLight Films)
• Walt Disney Pictures

Distributors

• Walt Disney Pictures (2004) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista Pictures

Special Effects

• Condor Media (initial titles compositing)

Other Companies

• FotoKem Film and Video  digital intermediate

Runtime:

USA:84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | Dolby SR | SDDS

Company:

Blacklight Films

Movie Connections:

Features Farther Than the Eye Can See (2003) (TV)

Longing for some good old American hooray?

Tired of Michael Moore's crybaby `Fahrenheit 9/11'? Longing for some good old American hooray? Then Walt Disney Pictures, who refused to distribute Moore's film, coincidentally brings you `America's Heart and Soul,' several vignettes about Americans who live freedom by doing extraordinary things from mountain climbing to making ice cream. The theme seems to be that our great country provides us with the opportunity to do what we want if we have the passion to do it.

The photography is glorious: Cowboy Roudy roams the range amid mountains only lucky people like my daughter Gabrielle can see daily (She recently moved to Wyoming with her family). Director Louis Schwartzberg (founder of stock footage firm `Energy' and additional cinematographer for `Koyaanisqatsi') has an eye for the sweeping aerial shot as well as the intimate close-up. The characters are eccentric but often daring and graceful: Mountain-dangling dancers defy gravity to gavotte with it; a Coloradoan bowls incendiary balls into old TV sets in front of admiring, obviously otherwise bored fellow sufferers of the dreaded winter. A Vermont farmer tells you how to avoid the Monday morning blues: Work seven days a week!

The freedom theme is aided by the subjects' passion to do what they choose: A gospel singer rears her six siblings after her mother's death, and those adults now call her Mom (Just listen to them sing in the choir, and you might rethink your agnosticism). Her rewards are more than six fold.

If you approach `America's Heart and Soul' as a love song to the best that America can be, you should be able to balance it with Moore's diatribe against the neocons. In either case, there is no balance: Schwartzberg neglects the poverty or, say, lack of health insurance many of the participants experience; Moore refuses to acknowledge any of President Bush's accomplishments. Both visions are free to be expressed, and we are free to debate about them. But Oscar Wilde warns, `To be entirely free and at the same time entirely dominated by law, is the eternal paradox of human life that we realize at every moment.'

The distribution of both films is a tribute to the freedom they wish to protect and the difficulty of achieving it in any lifetime.