The tickets are finally booked!
In just over a week I'll head to the States to meet up with Malcolm, a British political activist, in the heart of the swing state of Ohio. This is after he reunites with convention friends in Denver and makes a pit stop in Minneapolis.
Though this third leg of his trip will be quite different as Malcolm has never explored the terrain beyond America's medium to big-sized cities in all of his previous trips. I realised this much when we were having a conversation about public transportation in Ohio. Needless to say we opted to hire a car.
I suspect there will be more instances when I'll have to moonlight as a cultural interpreter while juggling the camera and driving the car. Unless, after living in London for the last three years, Ohio strikes me as foreign as it does Malcolm. Come to think of it, what if people think I'm foreign?
When I began attending Obama meetings in London a few months ago, I was struck at the number of non-Americans in attendance.
At the first meeting there was an outspoken Irishman named Kevin who runs a hotel in Westminster called Blades (http://www.blades-hotel.co.uk/) and who arrived to the meeting in Regents Park wearing an Obama t-shirt. A lover of America, he nicknamed his first house in Essex 'Kennedy'. What he said was something like this: I love America. Now the whole world is depending on the country to get it right.
Most people agree that the outcome of American presidential elections affects people far beyond its own borders. And perhaps none more so than this election. But what motivates someone without citizenship to give up their holiday time and the cost of a plane ticket to volunteer campaign when I've heard of American citizens who are right now sitting in an apathetic, dejected state, shouting at their T.V.s from the comfort of their living rooms?
Soon after attending my first Obama meeting I was inspired to make a short documentary film about the election. But through the eyes of a non-American. And not in London, but in America.
The plan is to travel around The Buckeye State where Malcolm will link up with other British (and American) activists along the way to 'Get Out The Vote' for Obama.
But will the Americans he meets take note that he's British? And if so, how will they respond?
Especially as some Ohioans, or 'Buckeyes' (called so after the Buckeye tree) did not take kindly to interference from the other side of the pond which arrived in their mail boxes after The Guardian initiated a letter writing campaign to residents of Clark County during the last election.
I set up this blog to chart the progess of the film, which will chart Malcolm's adventures on this last stretch of the road to the White House.
But the blog will also be a respository of sorts where I hope to share interesting and sometimes tangential antecdotes and facts I collect along the way.
Already I've had some interesting questions when talking to some British friends about the film.
Question #1 (from a British documentary film editor): Is voting obligatory in America?
Answer: Absolutely not!
But in Brazil, if you're aged between 18 and 70 and literate, it is. Theoretically If you don't vote in Brazil, you can be fined. (see http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/article.php?id=46)
Question #2 (I can't remember who from...): What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican anyway?
Answer: Coming soon in the words of the Democrats and Republicans I encounter along the way...
