Sea to Shining . . .
Peter Laufer’s film “Sea to Shining . . . “ documents the cross America journeys he took immediately after 9/11 and again ten years after. On both trips Laufer spoke to some three dozen Americans. In 2011, he was able to find and interview about a third of the original group. On that second trip he found people “disappointed, deflated, often defeated and looking for diversion. I sensed a hopelessness mixed with a good old American attitude of ‘let’s make the best of it.’ When they did talk about the overarching themes of war and the economy, they bemoaned the status quo. But then, in the next breath, when I talked with them about their personal lives and their experiences with their friends and family, there was grand joie de vivre and the embracement of our continuing American dream. I didn’t come away from the trip with a negative feeling about our futures.”
