Anthem - Hardcover

Gabel, Shainee; Hahn, Kristin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380974193 ISBN 13: 9780380974191

Publisher: William Morrow, 1997

Synopsis

When twenty-six-year-olds Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn quit their Hollywood jobs, packed up a borrowed car and hit the road, it was with the deeply felt conviction that somewhere, shrouded in the din of talk shows and tabloid headlines, they'd discover the real America, alive and well in all of its regions and demographics.

Armed with a Powerbook, a couple of video cameras and the names and phone numbers of over two hundred Americans they viewed as visionaries or cultural icons, they embarked on a journey that would take them from historic New Orleans to the rainforests of Washington, from the skyscraper-lined avenues of New York City to the dusty roads of the Great Plains. Never did they imagine that they'd drive recklessly through the back roads of Aspen with Hunter S. Thompson, see the President of the United States lose his temper, be in the CNN newsroom on the day of the O. J. Simpson verdict, or survive the hottest day in Chicago history with America's chronicler, Studs Terkel.

During their six-month journey, Gabel and Hahn interviewed luminaries from every field and walk of life. They talked to business people, politicians, activists, scientists, writers and artists, including Robert Redford, Michael Stipe, Willie Nelson, Geraldine Ferraro, John Irving and American poet laureate, Rita Dove, to name a few. They also talked to everyday people they encountered along the way, from a sixty-five-year-old waitress in Iowa to a haygrinder in North Dakota.

About this title

About the Author:

Kristin Hahn grew up in New Mexico, then moved to Los Angeles, where she spent a decade working in the television and film industry. With Shainee Gabel, Hahn wrote, produced, and filmed the acclaimed independent documentary Anthem and wrote the book based on the film. She currently lives in California with her husband and son.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The record of a four-month-long trip around America with a videocamera in 1995, in search of some defining ideas of American purpose and identity, by two young women who make very pleasant company. The virtue of the narrative (a feature-length documentary is also being released) is that Gabel and Hahn's winning sincerity gained them entry to a number of influential figures, from George Stephanopoulos to George McGovern, and from Robert Redford to Hunter S. Thompson, and their wide-eyed fascination with what they found clearly touched a number of their subjects. Some of their interviews (with the rap artist Chuck D and the environmental activist Wes Jackson, for instance) did provoke some frank answers. The drawback is that their questions tend to be somewhat simplistic, and their reactions to their surroundings are uninformed by much sense of history, focusing on matters (the extraordinary variety of American landscapes, life on the road) that may be new to them but that have been thoroughly covered by many before them. A work of modest but real charm. (First printing of 75,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0380974193
• ISBN 13: 9780380974191
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 394