The Recess Ends: A Tale Of Two-Hundred Cities

By: Cari Shane Parven

It’s our journey, but it is America’s story,” says Austin Chu, the older of two brothers who drove across the country last year to create a video documentary of the recession. Their project may remind us of some of the famous images that grew out of the Great Depression, photographs such as the “Migrant Mother” series by Dorothea Lange in the 1930s.

The video documentary, The Recess Ends, debuts on the internet this Sunday night.

It is America’s story explains Austin, because the documentary (shot between January and June 2009), is narrated by the people, the sounds and the scenes of the United States during the heart of the recession. The film is woven together in a flowing narrative told by a cross section of Americans of different ages and financial standings as well as religious and ethnic backgrounds.

Austin, 26, came up with the idea for The Recess Ends, so named because “we’ve been playing for so many years and now it’s time to get serious,” after being pink slipped along with 15 others from a California start-up in December 2008.

Brian, 23, who had studied media and film in college, became intrigued with the idea and quit his job to hop in the van with Austin: “I signed the papers and packed my stuff and thought of that commercial ‘you are now free to move about the country,’ and it triggered a thought in me that I should drive across the country. And then I thought, ‘I want to film it, I want there to be a purpose.’”

Because they don’t take themselves too seriously, the brothers simply wanted to explore how the recession was affecting Americans. Beyond that, they didn’t leave Irvine, CA in their 2001 dark green Toyota Sienna van with a hypothesis or a dream.

These young men who “like to think we’re soccer dads without kids,” says Austin, “just followed the news,” says Brian, tuning into regional radio as they made their way through all 50 states. When they heard reports about layoffs at mines and plants, corporations and box stores, the Chus pulled off the highway and pulled into town with their camera and tripod. “We would just show up. Unannounced,” declares Austin.

What they found and documented in this tale of two hundred cities, from farms in Iowa to the inner city of Detroit, the beaches of Hawaii and the suburbs of Arizona, is thousands of forthright people willing to share “their thoughts during some of the most pivotal moments of the recession. What we are doing here, really, is showing America. It is people talking to us… sharing stories, sharing their belief in community,” says Austin.

In fact, the essence of community soon became the common thread that bound one city to the next, ultimately becoming the theme of the documentary.

“I want people to learn about and meet their neighbors. That’s what I want people to take away from this movie,” says Austin. “Know the people on the bus with you. Don’t be afraid of each other. It sounds so hippyish, but when you skim away the money, all the excess, what you are left with is home, health, relationships and community.”

The belief in the power of community and connectivity reverberated throughout the country.

“We need to start with one community at a time… shift money into local spending, create more jobs, not leave it to the experts,” says a 20-something woman on the New Hampshire coast. Her comments were echoed clear across the country by a realtor standing in an abandoned suburban Scottsdale, Arizona suburb. “It’s like a bomb has gone off, nobody is around … If we all get out there and help each other through this period of time that is how we will get to where we need to go.” And again, by a teenager in Milwaukee. “If everyone started doing in their community, you could actually change the world.”

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