The Hunt for Good Americans
The absurdist fairy tale The Hunt for Good Americans follows two women on a cross-country search for love. Shot using a defiantly grassroots approach, the film was written, recorded, choreographed, costumed, and performed by the creative duo Abigail Pope and Victoria Campbell as they traveled throughout the United States, encountering a colorful cast of characters along the way. Just as the The Hunt for Good Americans establishes improvisation as a central facet of the duo’s artistic practice, the film itself is an adventure into the unknown. Through each sequence, the viewer is led deeper into the labyrinth of America, with only the dreamlike, singsong dialogue of the film’s protagonists to lead the way.
Underline Gallery’s Olivia Casa interviewed the filmmakers Abigail Pope and Victoria Campbell following the debut screening of The Hunt for Good Americans at the Norwood Arts Club.
The Hunt for Good Americans seems to be not only a search for American identity, but for feminine—and personal—identity. How have your roles as female artists influenced your work?
AP: We have both been challenged by being a female artist in a male-dominated industry, but I will speak for myself. I have had to build up an ego by forcing myself to put myself “out there”—something that has never come naturally to me. I feel that a lot of girls have to learn how to build up an ego, whereas boys, generally, have an ego naturally built-in. We also live in a society that praises the extrovert, so as an introvert, I have had to learn how to become an extrovert by observing and pretending to be one. As a female, and a petite one to boot, I have also had a hard time being taken seriously and professionally. I have had numerous instances where men in powerful roles have dangled the carrot, so-to-speak, letting me know that if I cooperated with them sexually, they may be able to help me out professionally. I have always found this extremely degrading and saddening, especially since I think my ideas and creativity are worthy of attention.
This type of harassment has definitely hindered my self-esteem and has often left me feeling hopeless and depressed. But I also think these experiences are a huge influence on my art and have shaped my commentary and ideas, which are often centered around images and depictions of girls and women in the media. Tori and I created the concept of a “Good American” as a way to challenge media images of perfection that are perpetuated throughout the media, where we instead created kooky, fun, and imperfect images of ourselves and others. Girls have a lot of pressure to be perfect, pretty, and flawless that comes from the media and we wanted to create art that would release that pressure. In the film we made, I put a big, black mole on my face that was meant to be ambiguous—is it a beauty mark or an ugly mole? It was commentary on the constant focus on surface beauty, whereas we believe beauty comes from within.
VC: I remember once listening to a female cinematographer discuss how she was treated by her mainly male-dominated world of crew, director, and producers. She told stories of how they would mock her and say “now don’t get too mushy in the close-ups and don’t go in for all the teary moments.” She spoke of how she would often laugh these little assaults off and in the end came to cherish being a woman in her work despite the constant heckling. She was able to really hone in on the more sensitive moments and found having a large amount of empathy helped the movies she has made and continues to make. In the end, she has the last laugh because her work soars due to her ability to connect through her feminine sensitivity, her empathy if you may. Her story always sticks with me as I, too, feel that having a feminine lens only adds to the work I make and the voice I continue to push out in new ways.
As a woman I have always felt I had to prove myself in my work and my studies, be it in school, filming, writing, or acting—there is always a sense that I must make sure the people surrounding or watching me must know I am smart and capable. It is a strange pressure I feel lurking- a sense that if I let the other shoe drop they will inevitably see me just as a woman, temperamental, a bit ditzy, blonde, and dramatic. I’m always amazed how strong I have always felt this gnawing fear that they will see me as just the contours of a female shape—and nothing more—and hear my voice as a shallow breath. I suppose this big, surging doubt is what pushes me forth to challenge and shatter the role of women in mainstream media and in our day-to-day society on a continuous basis.
The gritty work of Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, and the French New Wave are what pulled me into acting initially. I wanted to make roles that were pulsating with life and off the beaten track. When I saw Gena Rowlands literally come undone in Woman Under the Influence it was then I knew I wanted to act and to create films that were gritty and portrayed real women and men, not as shallow caricatures as one might see on an episode of Friends, but real, throbbing, troubled, unpretty faces and lives screaming across a screen. The poetry of Truffaut’s film work really inspired me as well to think of misfits and characters that were invisible to the mainstream media and Hollywood movies. These small stories were being told with reverence and imagination, sometimes fantastical and often silly with absurdist twists. Again the women were funny and not afraid to be undone or look foolish, they were loud and bawdy or tiny and strange. I loved them in all their madness. And I think what is most important for me in any work I do or contribute to is creating human roles of women that are accessible and do not make women feel inadequate or trivial.
Describe your process and experience of making The Hunt for Good Americans.
AP: It took us four years to make the film. It was very experimental and one thing grew from the next. We knew we wanted to create a fantastical adventure, but we did not have an exact route or specific people in mind to “hunt.” We gathered our subjects and our costumes along the way, and wrote poems and ditties for scenes and characters as we met them on the road. We raised enough money through friends and family to pay for gas, food, motels, and second-hand clothes. We had a
film camera, a still camera, a tripod, a road map, and a pen and notebook. We took all back roads, avoiding major highways, and sought out differing American landscapes and people. Serendipity, openness, and determination were the leading forces that got us through to completion.
VC: I think Abby was pretty darn eloquent. It was indeed a mad pot of creativity and adventure. We wanted to really see and taste our country and meet people out in strange parts which were off the beaten path. We indeed collected a marvelous bunch of characters who were willing to participate in our journey. We wrote our poems in the car, discussed the next scene and destination and off we went, argued over who’s turn to drive…and made our way from state to state. It was all a learning experience. Indeed it was a theatre tour of sorts. We took our show on the road and filmed/documented it on the way. Instead of traveling with a large troupe of actors, we found our actors along the journey from Mississippi to California. And it was deeply collaborative between the two of us and very fun to make.
How does your film and video work relate to your previous artistic careers?
AP: We combined our strengths and expertise to make the film. My photography background was helpful for the visuals. I was adamant about creating a scene as best as possible with limited resources, instead of capturing what was already there. I always envisioned the landscapes and venues we found as a stage with which to place characters upon. Every day was like putting on a little play. We had no lighting or crew, so we filmed ourselves and used available lighting. I helped with posing and tried to make the angles as flattering as possible. As a photographer, I specialized in environmental portraiture, so my shooting style was usually wide-angle shots, capturing people in their natural environment and describing that environment as richly as possible. I always made sure our costumes matched with each other and also coordinated with the background. As for Tori, she really was able to break the ice with a lot of the people we met. Her nature is fun-loving and outgoing, which created the perfect attraction to lure people into our world of nonsense and imagination. She was very patient with me as I struggled with memorizing my lines, and I followed her lead with acting. I had always been behind the camera, so being in front of the camera was new to me, but she made it easy, fun, and not intimidating.
VC: Abby’s eye in photography helped me immensely to see differently and I was able to pick up a great deal about composition and light. I see light in a whole different way as a result. I watched her and learned from her and am currently in a grad program at SVA for experimental documentary…. Obviously my acting background came in handy for the theatrical aspect and I was able to riff very easily with Abby. We have a marvelous chemistry and shared sense of humor, which really makes the video and film work fun and spontaneous. We both put one another at ease and I tried to really bring a sense of improv into the work which made things flow better and made Abby feel comfortable. She is a natural at heart, she just needs to memorize better (haha). Thoughts and ideas just kept coming and the dialogue was loose and free throughout our road trip.
The Hunt for Good Americans appears, at times, to be a vaudeville showcase, a surrealist fairy tale, and a psychedelic Beat epic. What (or who) were your greatest influences?
AP: Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Thelma and Louise, The Andrews Sisters, Jack Kerouac, Dr. Seuss… I think we just naturally combined all of these influences as if it were the fabric of our existence. The age of nine was a big influence on the esthetic of the film. A nine year-old has not yet lost their vivid, childhood imagination, but is simultaneously becoming aware of the adult world, opening their eyes to how the world works and exploring this territory for the first time. It’s that in-between place we found fascinating and thus we
created the essence and style of making the film from this point of
view—fresh, open eyes, perhaps a bit naïve at times, but learning
lessons from different characters along the way like Alice and
Dorothy. We were both nine years old in 1984, and we both fondly
remember watching E.T. on the big screen at the movie theater.
Thelma
and Louise is also a huge inspiration. They represent friendship
between two women; where a lot of depictions of women are competitive
with each other, these two had each other’s backs. They represent
everything a woman wants to be—adventurous, intrepid, daring, smart,
sexy, fun…breaking free from rules that society has imposed upon us,
the constrictions of a female role in our society, pushing
relentlessly for freedom and justice. There is solidarity in
friendship. We also didn’t want to have any romantic love
relationships in our film. There are so many films where the females
in lead roles are pursuing a romantic relationship as the plot of the
story. We wanted the pursuit of love to be abstract and not about a
man. Love exists in all sorts of relationships, and we wanted to
illustrate that somehow.
VC: We spoke a great deal of Alice in Wonderland as Abby mentioned and children’s stories such as Dr. Seuss and the marvelous Where the Wild Things Are. Also, Gabriel García Márquez and his mad, surreal worlds were a point of discussion. We invoked a bundle of artists and inspirations. Certainly Willa Cather with all her pioneering books of women pushing into the Wild West stuck in my head as we journeyed through the country. And the poets of the Beat generation were very thick in our travels: Kerouac and Ginsberg. The myth of the American vagabond, train hopper, and gypsy danced in our heads and the songs of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan—all those great folk singers served as courage for us to go forth into the unknown and really see what the country bore us. I think we felt the rite of passage for any young American is to see the country by car. We wanted to honor this rite of passage and present a different America than what perhaps we sometimes really encountered, perhaps a slightly romantic idea of the America that exists, more magical. In the end even the dark parts of the journey were alright—the lonely landscape of mall and parking lots—they too became part of our strange fantastical journey. Death in the big forest was not something to fear, it was just the acceptance of the road never ending, the adventure never stopping; nothing is found concrete enough to stave off death of the body, but the spirit goes on as does art long after the artist dies.
Did you find the “good American”? What did you conclude about American identity, both through the film and during your travels?
AP: Yes, we found all sorts of “good Americans,” although there is not a
specific description. We found that with an open mind, we could
connect with just about anyone and that everyone has something to
offer and some wisdom to give. Our society is centered around
consumerism, materialism, and superficiality, so we tried to navigate
around the billboards and fast-food madness and find the real, authentic souls underneath the plastic façade.
VC: I have always felt “good American” is sheer word play and there is always a wink accompanying this. It doesn’t really exist—”good American”—it’s no better than what the soviets did in their society with “good citizen” verses “bad citizen.” We are simply trying to poke fun at a ridiculous, sentimental notion that is deep in the fabric of our country, what it means to be a “true” American or a “true” patriot. All that rhetoric is quite detrimental, it tends to exclude verses include. Look at the reaction to 9/11—if you weren’t roaring around with an American flag and denouncing Osama you were not a “good American.” So I would say “no,” the good American was never found because it simply does not exist. The people along the way were good, open, gracious people apart from this political tag of “good American.” On our trip, human connection was found, lessons were learned along the way, characters came and went, young girls became adults while seeking something outside of themselves; they found it was within all along much like Oz and how the wizard simply tells the lion he has had courage all along…
How has your work as a duo evolved from your shorter video work to the feature-length film The Hunt for Good Americans?
AP: The video work is more specific commentary on specific things we find
frustrating and the only way to deal with it for us is to make fun of
it and make fun of ourselves since we are part of it, too. The film is
more of a youthful exploration rather than a specific commentary.
VC: Quite organically really. Through good road trips taken in past—and we both have a good sense of direction…and humor.
Your film’s premise was the inspiration for the exhibition “The Good American” at Underline. How is your exploration of American culture related to those of the other artists featured in the show?
AP: Oh social commentary is abound in the show, which we do and LOVE!!!
The black woman pushing the white babies, the black faces coming into
view, the Mobil station logo…
VC: In the show I think we are all questioning our identity as Americans and trying to grapple with our place in ever-changing American society. I also think as artists we all feel a sense of being outside America—that we are trying to see it from afar and give it voice through other means.
The video art and photography of Abigail Pope and Victoria Campbell is currently on view at Underline Gallery, as part of “The Good American,” on view through August 12th. For images from the screening of The Hunt for Good Americans, check out our photo gallery from the event here.
