A road trip through the U.S. in the fall of 2024 to discover what unites us.
SYNOPSIS
Apple pie, homecoming games and golden leaves. Autumn evokes an American identity that is rooted in wholesomeness, celebration, and change. In 2024, as summer days wane, the presidential election looms. Scrolling social media or watching the news, there is a palpable sense that we are an angry, divided nation. A filmmaker sets off on a cross country trip to discover what unites us.
On the road we’re dropped into the sights and sounds of everyday Americans’ lives: a cranberry harvest in Massachusetts, visiting a cranberry harvest in Massachusetts, a Thanksgiving reenactment in Virginia, a welder’s garage in Arkansas, a second line in New Orleans, a barbershop in Phoenix where driverless cars navigate the city, and more.
The film explores our nation at a pivotal moment when people are struggling to understand the complex global forces shaping their realities, and in the midst of fear and uncertainty, still finding joy in their communities.
Through a personal, warm-hearted lens, AMERICAN FALL presents a snapshot of who we are as a country and offers a hazy apparition of what lies ahead.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director Alexis Neophytides
Alexis Neophytides is a documentary filmmaker based in New York City. Her most recent film, Fire Through Dry Grass, co-directed with Andres “Jay” Molina, documents Jay and his fellow Reality Poets’ art and activism inside their nursing home during the COVID 19 pandemic. A NYT Critic's Pick, FIRE premiered at BlackStar in 2023, where it won the jury award for best feature documentary, and is broadcast + streaming on POV/PBS. Her first feature-length documentary, Dear Thirteen, explores coming of age in the modern world. It premiered at DOC NYC in 2022 and is distributed by Journeyman Pictures + Grasshopper Film. Alexis is the co-creator, co-director and producer of Neighborhood Slice, an Emmy nominated public television documentary series that tells the stories of longtime New Yorkers who've held onto their little corner of the city despite fast-growing gentrification. She produced and directed the series 9.99, for which she won a NY Emmy. Her work has been supported by ITVS, the Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, IDA, Perspective Fund, Fork Films, Working Films, the New York State Council on the Arts and the NYC Women’s Fund. She is also a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Grantee.
Over the past decade Alexis has developed filmmaking programs, implemented curricula and taught students all around NYC, including The Video Lab at The New School, The TEAK Fellowship and OPEN DOORS. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MA in Media Studies from The New School.
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Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
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