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Rick and Dick Hoyt competing in the Boston Marathon

What I love about America's Heart and Soul is the way it presents people who are really living. Forget reality television. This is reality and it's all about people who don't need a head shot to validate their existence. In our media saturated society, it's easy to forget that a lot of people sing, not just the Britneys and Madonnas of the world. A lot of people play instruments. A lot of people dance. Inasmuch as popular culture narrows the world by presenting a limited number of corporately sponsored artists and personalities for mass consumption, this movie widens the world by reminding us that there's a whole lot of interesting people out there. God bless America, indeed.

Talk About It

1. Director Louis Schwartzberg's parents survived Auschwitz, came to America and achieved the "American dream." Schwartzberg seems to have inherited a great respect for the opportunities America grants to its inhabitants. What do you think is the best aspect of living in the United States?
   
   
2. Minnie Yancey feels a deep connection to the mountains she lives in, saying that if she were cut open, you'd find a mountain range inside: "That's my heart." Is there a place or landscape you have a similar devotion to?
   
   
3. The people in the America's Heart and Soul all have a passion for something. For many it's the arts, for others it is physical achievement, for one woman it's flying her airplane. What are you passionate about? Does that passion come from God?
   
   

The Family Corner

Some sexy salsa dancing is the only element of America's Heart and Soul that even remotely flirts with being PG-13-ish. This is a movie for the whole family.

Photos © Copyright Walt Disney Pictures

If audiences want movie studios to produce great movies that the whole family can enjoy, they need to go out and buy tickets for those movies when they occur. This week is a perfect opportunity. While Spider-Man 2 and Fahrenheit 9/11 are making a lot of noise and raking in big box office receipts, an all-ages adventure is playing alongside them that is different than any big screen experience you've had before.

Imagine if an experienced cinematographer invited you to come and see his favorite footage from a career of capturing visions that inspire awe and national pride. The guy happens to be passionately patriotic. He also has a knack for discovering some of America's most interesting and inspiring people. His collection of footage is a treasure trove of exhilarating imagery and storytelling that challenges us to consider what makes us distinctive and what we can accomplish with our lives.

That pretty much sums up America's Heart and Soul, the new film from Louis Schwartzberg. He doesn't like to call it a "documentary," but considers it to be a big screen adventure movie that stars real people instead of Hollywood actors.

Unfortunately, the film is opening while the controversial, politically charged documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 is making headlines. Thus, some are arguing that this film is an answer to Michael Moore's troubling speculations and arguments. The truth is, America's Heart and Soul is not a political film. These interviews took place before September 11, 2001, and it took Schwartzberg a while to pull it together into a finished work. The film should inspire fans of John Kerry as much as it inspires supporters of George W. Bush or other American leaders. It'll inspire everyone but those who have given up on Disney studios completely.

The movie treats us to a whirlwind tour of the nation through Schwartzberg's romantic, colorful, gravity-defying cinematography. For just over 90 minutes, we're introduced to one amazing person after another, each one with a life story that will impress and intrigue you. You'll wish you could slow the movie down and dig deeper into each story, spending more time with each person.

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Celebrating Life	Printer view
That was filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg's goal for America's Heart and Soul, a marvelous new Disney movie opening July 2.