&
a project about who’s on the other side of the fence
American Other is a documentary performance project into group identity in the United States.
How do we identify ourselves and others in the United States . . .
class race gender
religion
education
geography
occupation
relationship status
body image
sexual orientation
criminal history
legal or illegal
dis/abled
et cetera
& how do we feel about it?
Through interviews, local footage, and multi-media performance, we are on a cultural scavenger hunt to find out who’s on the other side in America, and what you would ask them if you had the chance.
We’ll talk to people on the street, go to the Rotary club, call up the local congressman, ask to interview the mayor. We’ll meet people in coffee-shops, in bars, in libraries; we’ll spend our evenings listening to local bands and our mornings with church choirs. We’ll be America’s best date because we’ll go looking to listen; to find the ones in the corner and ask them to dance. Heaven knows we’ll be the ones in the corner much of the time. But we aren’t trying to get everyone to do the same dance, to want to hold hands, to even see the similarities between us and them. We’re looking for replies, not answers.
We believe it is important to implicate ourselves in this process, to scrutinize our own perceptions just as we will do to all of our interview subjects. We come to this project as the other and as Americans.
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