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The FRONTLINE Dispatch

Capturing ‘American Voices’ in a Year of Turmoil

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the pandemic hit, Dr. Blair Woodbury picked up the phone. He called his old friend, filmmaker Mike Shum, and urged him to get out and start recording the first draft of history.

That's how the new FRONTLINE documentary "American Voices: A Nation in Turmoil" was born. Shum, Woodbury and a team of independent filmmakers across America have been documenting how people are living through this tumultuous year — from the pandemic, to the widespread protests over racial injustice, through the historically polarized presidential election.

Shum and Woodbury join this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss the ambitious project and how the story of 2020 continues to evolve.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I hope it's wrong but I see too many comments by too many people I feel a revolution coming.

0:07.0

It's getting closer every day.

0:09.0

Somebody's going to be dumb enough to fire the first shot and we're going to have some serious problems.

0:16.3

I hope I'm wrong.

0:17.3

I hope you're wrong too.

0:18.6

And I hope I'm not here to see it.

0:20.3

Americans in a deeply divided country have faced a year of unrest and anxiety.

0:26.0

Where it looks like, man, this is crazy.

0:28.0

We're already fighting a common terror, which is COVID, and now this now?

0:33.0

Throughout 2020, a team of independent filmmakers and communities across the US

0:39.0

have been documenting how people are living through this moment.

0:42.0

You can't do one size fits all.

0:43.8

You can't shut everybody in.

0:45.3

You can't make healthy people wear masks.

0:47.6

A glimpse of this ongoing effort

0:49.3

can be seen in Frontline's post-election special,

0:52.4

American Voices, a Nation in turmoil.

0:55.8

I think our culture is going to stay divided.

0:58.5

The division that has been created here recently is going to take generations to recover. I think our culture is going to be horribly

1:06.4

scarred by this. In this episode of the dispatch, filmmaker Mike Schumm and his producing producing partner Dr Blair Woodbury

1:14.0

joined me to discuss the ambitious project.

1:16.8

I'm Rainy Aronson and this is the Front Line Dispatch. The Front Line Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism, and by the WGBH Catalyst Fund.

...

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