Like the end of a good Western

So I am back in NYC (aka the Wild Wild East.) The trip is over but like all good Westerns, there were good guys, bad guys, and beautiful women. Lessons learned and guns drawn. As a stranger once said "sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes well the bar eats you."


Below are morals from the road:

Mark a network sound recordists that I met in Durham warned me about love.
Don't be like all my cameramen friends, who falls in love with a woman's face and then realize later that her heart was bad.

Bob a law professor in Delaware/underwater shipwrecked explorer, who sat next to me on a plane to Alexandria, boosted about lust.
At 5am every woman on Bourbon St is beautiful, the bayou's morning light does special things.

Brenda who sells chemical insulation for underground wiring enjoyed flaunting her sexuality while chatting with me on the way to Atlanta.
I am a middle aged woman who still wears a short skirt and knee high boots, my husband loves to hear stories of men picking me up.

In the 9th ward Steve and Jim fished for Thanksgiving gumbo while sharing the most important life saving information of the swamp lands.
I will always take my chances with the gators. Gators will bite your hand off, a poisonous water snake will kill you in 20 mins.

Nick a forensic specialist based in North Carolina confided in me during my plane ride back to NY.
If you are planning to deal drugs, only sell prescription. It is very hard to convict you of trafficking.



Thank you to Allen Bell and everyone at the Southern Arts council that made this trip a reality. Thank you to everyone who gave me a meal, and a smile, and a story. These are things that will be hard to forget.

Buy FLYING ON ONE ENGINE on DVD:
http://bit.ly/4u4GiO

I took 1,362 photos during this trip, here are a couple:
http://bit.ly/4FLH01

Also tour posters are still available if you make a contribution to Dicksheet's charity: Contact me fooefilm (at) gmail (dot) com.

You can read all my previous posts below:
Flying On One Engine Tour Begins on Tuesday (November 04, 2009)
Bowling Green (November 12, 2009)
Nashville (November 13, 2009)
Louisiana (November 15, 2009)
Heart of Dixie (November 18, 2009)
White Noise (November 20, 2009)

White Noise

The people of Jackson, Clemson, and Cullowhee are hungry. In the last 3 days there were packed rooms of passionate students desperate to see something real. After a quick google here are some remarks from the chorus:

On Twittter jinxlovesrhps from WCU said the film was "#recommend". Just so you guys know a hashtag(#) is a big compliment on the 2009 world wide web.

On Blogspot Abubn's Art-like Things wrote:
"This was one of the best films I have seen here at Millsaps since I've been here. That's about 3 semesters. 'Amazing' seems to be too pale of a word for the documentary; it showed the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Thank you. Thank you for showing this, Millsaps."


On Wednesday I spent 8 hours in airports, and arrived into Clemson ten minutes before the film was finished to walk into a room of over a hundred eager students.


This is a photo of a paper plant in Cullowhee, NC. It reminded me of The Airbone Toxic Event in Don DeLillo's White Noise.

Sadly my last screening is tonight in Durham. Hopefully I will see some of your smiling faces this evening.

The Way We Get By Crew at the White House

Our blogs are coming slow but they are coming.

In October, we were fortunate to get a special tour of the White House and a 30 minute meet and greet with Vice President Biden. It was a wonderful opportunity for Bill, Joan, and Jerry to talk with the Vice President about their love of troop greeting. And the Vice President talked with all of us about his son's journey of service in the military. It was a very emotional meeting for us all and one we will never forget.

We would like to thank the White House team for giving us this wonderful, lifetime opportunity!

Two Towns of Madison

Madison Morgan Cultural Center, in Madison, Georgia drew a crowd for the screening on Monday night. It had a small town feel. Everyone seemed to know each other. There was a warm, neighborly thing in the air. As far as my eye could tell, everyone was white (eyes and assumptions don't always tell the whole story). I'm happy any which way an audience goes in terms of demographics, because the dialogue is needed every which way. And we did have great discussion of the issues the film raises. But it still struck me, because the Director of the Center shared with me that she'd done outreach to black organizations in town. As an outsider, I obviously don't know the in's and out's of it all, but I couldn't help wonder: Was the lack of turn out from Madison's black community a good barometer of race relations in town? Did it reflect a fundamental lack of trust and comfort by black Madisonians in talking with white Madisonians about the history and legacy of slavery? Was it skepticism, upon reading a blurb about Traces of the Trade that the film would present things in a way that validated their realities? Was it too painful a subject to want to deal with on a Monday night, too close to home? Was it the fact that the event was hosted by an organization that is probably thought of as "white"? All of those would be sadly understandable and common reasons. I spoke with a woman at the reception after the screening and she said, in so many words: "We're just totally separate, totally, totally separate. It's like the 1950's here." At the post office in the morning I noticed that every African-American person who came in said hi to every other black person who was also there, getting their mail, dropping something off. It had that same small town feel. Warm, friendly. But a separate town. Two towns within a town. Not particular to Madison. There are so few places that AREN'T like that. It reminded me that what it takes to loosen things up is a real effort, a big effort, a concerted effort, long-term effort. And people are busy. So life goes on. But as the woman at the reception and I agreed, everything starts with a small step.

Heart of Dixie

Last night November 16th 2009, Flying On One Engine was the 4th best grossing film in Montgomery Alabama! It even beat the John Cusak blockbuster 2012 in one theater. Flying ranked the 4th most watched film of 35 screens in all of Montgomery.

Also in attendance was Morris Dees the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, he was the man behind successful multi-million dollar suits against the KKK, Aryan Nations, and you-name-the-hate-group. Later that evening at his security detailed house we sipped bourbon and talked about filmmaking.

Thanks to Martin for his tour of the one block that Rosa Parks road the bus and the typo on Hank Williams grave. Also big appreciation for the great hospitably from Jim at the Lattice Inn.

Down on the delta we had a real party at the public library. Charlie and the Mobile Arts Council were wonderful.


Now onto a new section of the blog, brief interviews of people I meet...



Vanessa a California native, who has been living in Alabama for almost a decade is still called a Yankee. According to her people come to Alabama to die, she has seen the proof. Her husband was fine when they moved here, now he needs the assistance of a walker, also one girl at her work just died of a heat attack. For all her complaining, she had a fine disposition and maybe she was just frustrated that morning while we chatted.



Fionna might look like a Southerner, but today she explained that she was gay. And not gay as in a homosexual (this comment had everyone at the Lattice Inn laughing like a bunch of third graders.) She was gay, as in a form of happiness that can not be explained in any other terms. Fionna also told me the unbelievable story of moving to North Carolina from Scotland so her architecture husband could design banks as a front for a drug runner. This same drug runner later bugged the IRS.



Music was made to be played loud in fast cars with bass so deep you feel it from a block away. Revisiting my music collection has been one of my favorite parts of the trip. Official mix-tape might be posted at the end of the trip.

Current listening:
The Go! Team - Thunger, Lightning, Strike
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Spoon - ga ga ga ga
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot



See bigger and more photos from my trip here:
http://bit.ly/4FLH01