Relying on the kindness of strangers: that was the premise of the journey Sarah Sellman and Greg Grano took in their film “American Bear.” They went to thirty states in sixty days and to five towns named Bear.
Grano was talking in his sleep when he said, “We need to go to Bear, Colorado.” That inspired the destinations the couple went to. It turned out that Bear, Colorado, does not actually exist, but they found five towns in the continental United States named Bear. The two went all over the U.S. in their four-door orange Honda, relying on strangers for a place to say.
The documentary explores their sojourn in small towns and big cities and the strangers who put them up for a night. According to the film, Grano and Sellman talked to a total of 711 strangers, seven percent of whom actually gave them a place to stay for the night. They spent a couple nights in hotels and one night in their car parked in the Walmart parking lot.
They met people from all walks of life: a Vietnam veteran, a foster family, a family living on a Cheyenne Reservation and a paratrooper. They went to towns like Lame Deer, Montana; Atlanta, Georgia and Oberlin, Ohio.
Tim Smith / Equinox Staff
Grano said he takes a lot from the experiences they had while filming, “I really didn’t think I liked documentaries until I made one, but I now feel so grateful that I did that and it was based on people’s real stories and getting to explore that was something that I think will impact any kind of filmmaking opportunity from here on out,” Grano explained.
He said he learned a lot from the telling of different strangers’ life stories. “I couldn’t have written those,” Grano said.
He continued, “I’m so grateful that I did that and got to hear those stories.”
Grano said one of the families that impacted him the most was a family that lived on a Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. They encountered the family through a woman named Jolene who they met in a grocery store. “Our movie demonstrates a lot of what it means to be polite in America and a lot of the privileges that the two of us had, and the fact that a lot of the people we stayed with mirrored some of our identities I think reflects that. Staying with Jolene felt really special because I think in some ways she was taking risks that other hosts of ours did not have to,” Grano said.
The journey highlighted societal issues like race and gender. With Jolene’s family they discovered the breaking down of stereotypes and other people’s preconceptions. Grano explained that towns outside the Northern Cheyenne Reservation warned the couple of stories and stereotypes of the people who lived there.
This trip also taught Grano and Sellman a lot about filmmaking. “The whole project was a risk because of the actual social experiment aspect of it,” Sellman said.
Sellman explained they had everyone they interviewed sign a waiver in order for it to be included in the film and as a personal touch they left a stuffed teddy bear and a card with every host they stayed with as a thank-you.
Grano and Sellman started the project as film students at New York University in their early twenties. Today, three years later, they are touring their film across the country, similar to the journey they started out with. They hope to have screenings in major theaters across the country soon.
On their website americanbearfilm.com, Sellman detailed their account and how it affected her as a human being and a filmmaker.
“I don’t think I’ve stopped experiencing our adventure and I don’t think I’ll realize how important was for a long time,” Sellman wrote, “The biggest thing for me is the memories, or the way that anything anybody says reminds me of our time on the road, reminds me of one of our amazing hosts, reminds me of an encounter or a place or a time.”
The “American Bear” website also includes interviews Grano and Sellman conducted with professors across the country in a segment called BEAR Bones. The interviews discuss the neuroscience, gender studies, race relations and sociology behind the “American Bear” journey. Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the KSC Film Society Peter Condon said he thought the film was, “Incredible. Some moments I was very moved.”
For him, the family who fosters five children touched him the most.
He described them as a family willing to provide those kids with a, “happy and loving life.”
He also mentioned that even though he had just met them tonight, Grano and Stillman were staying at his place for the night.
Hannah Sundell can be contacted at hsundell@keene-equinox.com