Sometimes listening is a more difficult undertaking then speaking. It’s not just the act of devoting all our attention to someone else that is difficult, it’s confronting whatever opinions come our way. Local filmmakers Dominic Howes and Joel Weber haven’t set out to make our lives easier with their new documentary. The Listening Project forces us, however uncomfortable it may make us, to listen to outside views on a topic that hits close to home — in fact, it is home.
The film follows four Americans — a middle school history teacher, a probation officer, a poet/spoken word artist, and a human rights activist — as they travel across fourteen different countries asking people one question: What do you think of America?
Beautifully shot, the film gives us a stimulating visual buffet of images of the people and countries the Americans visit — from Russia to Brazil to Afghanistan to Japan. While the visual aspects of the scenes are incredibly moving, however, the interviews that go along with them seem to fall a bit short of thought provoking. Aside from two interviews that seem to give a slightly deeper and more honest opinion about America, most of the interviews are too brief, barely scratching the surface of the issues by broadly stating general and already familiar global opinions. Many of the conversations — quick on-the-street interviews or bar-room chitchat — produce only safe and diplomatic answers that simply rehash viewpoints that the typical, globally conscious American viewer has already heard.
The film’s more valuable and interesting perspective is that of the American listeners themselves — their reactions to their new, global experiences and the opinions of others from differing cultures. We get to know more about these listeners (as they are called) than we do about the people interviewed; we get to know their backstories, the reasons why they decided to travel and talk to people, and what they got out of the experience.
Overall, The Listening Project effectively demonstrates how traveling changed these four different Americans, how it opened them up to new experiences and made them reevaluate their country’s role in the world. The only problem is that we as the viewer do not get to share in their enlightenment.
While the film doesn’t expose any mind-blowing or unique insight into the world’s view of America, it certainly proves the general power of travel and cross-cultural communication.
Midwest Premiere, Thursday, December 13th at 7:30 p.m., The Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, 612-331-3134, $8.
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