Together

Back in December, My friend John Pouliot and I, inspired by the recent election of Barack Obama, decided to travel to Washington DC for his inauguration.  When asked why we were going rather than just watching it on TV, we gave the answer that you probably heard a lot on CNN and other news networks: we were going to witness history.  Who wouldn't want to experience the largest event that has ever happened in America, not to mention the swearing in of the first black president?

We quickly realized however that there was so much more to this experience than a changeover of political regimes.  Usually in our society, the only times that people come together and embrace each other, work together for one purpose, you are usually watching an airliner crash into a skyscraper or an entire city flooded.  It is so much more rare for this to happen for something good.  Never before have I been in a place where there was more happiness, more teamwork, more patriotism.  After the inauguration I stood for a couple of hours in a chaotic mob of around 2,000,000 people, shoulder to shoulder, trying to exit the national mall.  Everyone was trying to go a different direction simply because they didn't know which direction was the right one.  Normally in a situation like this, one would expect stampedes and cursing.  On January 20th it was nothing but people apologizing and saying excuse me for stepping on feet.  It was the friendliest mob I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of.  It was heavenly.

At the time we decided to go to Washington, officials were expecting around 6,000,000 people to come and witness Obama's inauguration.  John and I knew that we didn't want to just be spectators.  We wanted more.  Being film/television majors and appreciators of the art of documentary, we decided that the best way to experience this unparalleled event would be to make a documentary about it, and find out what it is that led 2,000,000 of this world's most closed off and independent human s to stand together in 20 degree weather for 13 hours, and be blissfully happy at the same time.

This blog will soon contain a detailed account of the experiences John, I, and the two other crew members that accompanied us went through, as well as short documentaries made from our footage, and updates on the completed film (due to be completed around 2 months from now at the latest).

The experiences that the four of us had were truly mind blowing.  I doubt that I will ever see anything similar ever again and I am truly a changed person because of it.

-Kevin