Calif. brothers documenting recession roll through Lincoln

By COLLEEN KENNEY / Lincoln Journal Star

Their cross-country quest to document the recession began with an economic crash.

At a blind corner in San Clemente, Calif., the two filmmakers pulled their ’98 Chevy Suburban a few feet into the intersection. A truck slammed into them, totaling their SUV and setting them back $5,000 — a lot of money to Brian and Austin Chu.
Especially now.

Brian, 23, a film editor and camera operator, is on leave from his job. Austin, 26, lost his job at an Internet startup.

“We have a van,” Austin says. “But we don’t like to stay in the van.”

Wednesday, the California brothers drove their van around Lincoln and up to Omaha, their latest stops on a three-month journey to 55 cities and 45 states.

In Lincoln, they tried to interview students and people on the street.

“Believe it or not,” Austin says, “not a lot of people wanted to talk to us at all. Just three out of 15 people.”

That wasn’t a problem in California. People went on and on about their situations, he says, about Obama, about the economic stimulus package. People either liked it or hated it.

Same thing in Arizona and Nevada.

In Las Vegas, they filmed streets that felt empty, no one walking around, no cars in driveways, houses vacant. On many streets, Austin says, at least two or three homes out of 12 were in foreclosure.

“It was pretty bad.”

In New Mexico, they hung out with a family who had 12 people living under the same roof — the father, mother, three kids plus seven people they took in. These were not relatives. They were students and other people who needed a place to stay.

The father, a former professor, commutes to a good job in California doing statistics for a fitness company.

“He’s like, ‘If I’m not here, these kids couldn’t make it. So I have to find a way.’”

But then in Colorado, Austin says, people didn’t want to talk to them, either.

He’s not sure why. Maybe because they had a camera. Maybe people in Colorado and Nebraska are too busy.

“It just seemed like a real touchy subject here,” he says.

They interviewed a 20-year-old UNL student. At first, he didn’t seem as if he wanted to talk. But then he warmed up. He quoted Obama. He told them he worried about finding a job when he graduates and how he hears at home, from his banker mom, how many people are worried, too.

They interviewed another UNL student, a programmer, who thought he’d be able to find a job in the technology field.

They interviewed a woman who works for a nonprofit that’s doing well and was hopeful the recession would blow over.

What themes have they found so far?

The poor are used to being poor, Austin says. They know how to live with less money. The rich are going to stay rich.

But the middle class people, like that man and his family in New Mexico, are the ones getting broadsided.

Their documentary will be called “The Recess Ends.”

They will probably remember Lincoln as a place where they were hit with another economic setback.

Around midday, they visited Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s downtown office to see if he was in. He wasn’t. They talked to his press secretary a bit, then returned to their van.

“Oh, man!” Austin says.

A $10 parking ticket.