Friday, February 29th, 2008
Last night I saw a documentary called America Unchained, the brain child of Dave Gorman. Gorman is a writer, producer, actor, comedian, etc. based in London, England. The showing was at the Alamo Drafthouse (the best cinema in America) and put on by the Austin Film Festival.
I thought it was quite a charming film, highlighting mom and pop, independently-owned businesses along a circuitous West to East Coast journey by the filmmaker and his camera operator(s). The central idea of the documentary is to go "from Los Angeles to the Atlantic Ocean never spending a cent at a chain restaurant, chain hotel or chain gas station". A tall-order for sure with so many franchises and corporations and other such entities that the doc dubs "The Man".
Gorman is great to watch on screen. He’s real, he’s funny, and along every leg of the trip I found myself excited to hear his take. And there are some really touching stories to boot.
About 15 minutes into the film, I realized that I was wearing a Hanes hoodie, branded with a small but noticeable IBM logo. Both are NYSE traded companies. IBM is a huge, global enterprise. Decidedly not mom and pop. Even though this was my standard work-day-at-IBM uniform, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of irony.
But I’m not sure that the film necessarily had an ulterior, anti "The Man" motive. At the beginning of his journey, Gorman presents his mission as more of a personal challenge than anything else. Yes, it was his goal not to give any money to big business for the duration. But he does not seem to be out to harm them — he’s out to highlight, to praise the little guy.
In seeking the local, independent businesses, he sticks mostly to small-town America. This alone creates a vastly different experience for him compared against what he could/would have experienced in the big city.
I love independent business. While I’m not sure I could be as extreme as the filmmaker, I seek them out whenever I can. But big business plays a huge part everyone’s day to day lives. For example, in the film, Gorman seeks out only independently-owned gas stations. Great. But where do those gas stations buy their gas from? The couple that owns a service station in America’s heartland isn’t out there drilling for oil. This takes enormous resources, something arguably better left to the big guys. (Granted, good arguments can be made for not using gas in the first place, something to which, I would imagine, Gorman could sink his teeth into.)
It is interesting to think about the extent to which The Man plays a part in your life. Take for example this blog. I have Google-sponsored advertising alongside the posts. Steve Pavlina has an interesting (and lengthy) take about blogging for money. One of the things he says is that "worrying that you’re doing something wrong by deciding to get paid for your work" is dangerous if you’ve decided to monetize your website/blog. I agree — I try my best to create useful, interesting content. The information is free, and I don’t think the ads are intrusive. Or at least that’s the idea.
Regardless, I guess my blog supports The Man. But I think it also helps the little guy — more or less anyone can sign up for an AdWords account and begin advertising. The web is full of stories about the little guy succeeding. I wonder what Gorman would think…? Even he is doing a bit of Internet entrepreneurship over at his namesake website.
Anyway, I highly recommend checking the film out. You can get it from Amazon or maybe even try to find an independently-owned theater near you to put on a screening.