The Road Beyond Empty America
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Over the last two years, I have been writing a new book. More than once I have asked myself a hard question. Will anyone actually read it?
The hesitation has nothing to do with whether the story is compelling. It has nothing to do with whether people are curious. It has everything to do with the subject itself. The topic still carries weight. It still carries trauma. For many, the instinct is to move on rather than look back.
The book tells the story behind my 17 time Best Documentary Short, Empty America. The film was created as a time capsule. A snapshot of the country during Covid. It captured empty streets, closed businesses, masked faces, and a culture trying to make sense of something unprecedented (blog from 2020: here).
But the film was never the full story.
The trip itself was far more transformative than the documentary. Driving across the country during that moment in history changed me in ways I could not have predicted. When I returned home, I packed up my family and moved south to Florida. It was not just a relocation. It was a redirection of my life.
And I was not alone in that redirection.
Across the country, families fractured. Marriages dissolved. Businesses closed and never reopened. Schools shut down. Graduations happened on screens. Weddings were postponed or held without guests. Most tragically, many said goodbye to loved ones through hospital glass or not at all.
In the chaos of those early months what few people could see was that it was a multi-front ambush on society that nobody was prepared for.
There was the reality of the disease itself. The onslaught of the 24-hour news cycle inspiring fear among the population. The never ending conspiracy theories flooding into social media. And the political warfare for the upcoming election happening across the land. Years later, new information continues to surface. The mixture of truth, fear, manipulation, uncertainty, and hindsight has created something we still have not fully processed.
But I have a theory about how American pop culture is making sense of it all.
Consider Stranger Things, the Netflix series. On the surface, people love it for the nostalgia of the 1980s. The bikes. The music. The clothes. But beneath the aesthetic is a deeper narrative. A secret government operation in a small American town spirals out of control. Experiments are hidden. Lives are disrupted. Some characters see the truth early. Others never see it at all. Those who do not understand what is happening sometimes become the loudest antagonists.
It is safe to analyze a fictional government conspiracy. It is safe to debate monsters from another dimension. It is culturally acceptable to unpack trauma through metaphor. What is far less acceptable is applying similar scrutiny to a real world event that is still politically and emotionally charged.
You can talk about Stranger Things at the dinner table. Try doing the same with Covid.
Over the past few months, I have attempted to post thoughtfully about this topic. The results have been predictable. Engagement drops. Visibility declines. Accounts suffer. Post still get flagged on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. It is just simply a fact of the current digital landscape that remains like a bad hang over.
So why do I continue?
I continue because on that trip across America, I experienced something I can only describe as a moment of divine revelation. A burning bush experience in the Mojave Desert and an eye opening insight in Times Square. It has never left me. If anything, it has only grown stronger.
Overall, this book is about healing. It is about acknowledging that something profound happened to us collectively. It is about asking better questions. It is about recognizing the scale and seriousness of biological threats and why they deserve the same level of classification, oversight, and public awareness that we apply to nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Empty America captured the silence. The book captures the journey. It tells the story behind the 17 time Best Documentary Short shown in festivals around the globe and explores what it means to heal a country experiencing cultural PTSD.
Suppression must end. Honest reflection must begin. If we want to move forward as a culture, we have to process what we have been through.
Join me in helping bring it to the world!
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FESTIVAL NAMES AND AWARDS:
Anatolia International Film Festival | February 10, 2021 | Best Documentary Short Film
American Golden Picture International Film Festival | March 03, 2021 | Best Quarantine Film
Florence Film Awards | March 05, 2021 | Short Documentary
San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival | April 13, 2021 | Best Documentary Short
HIFF – HALO International Film Festival | May 19, 2021 | Best Documentary
BIMIFF – Brazil International Film Festival | December 12, 2021 | Best Documentary
OTB | Only The Best Film Awards | September 07, 2022 | Only The Best Documentary
Garoa Awards | July 05, 2023 | Documentary Short Film
Cotswold International Film Festival | August 06, 2023 | Best Documentary Short
International Film Festival of Ross | August 08, 2023 | Best Documentary Short Film
Havelock International Film Festival | September 20, 2023 | Best Documentary Short Film
Malaikandan Independent Film Festival | February 03, 2024 | Best Documentary Short Film
Golden Peacock International Film Festival | April 02, 2024 | Best Documentary Short Film
Sentinel International Film Awards | April 15, 2024 | Best Documentary Short Film
Golden Wheat Awards | March 31, 2024 | Film – Competition Section (All Categories)
Tamilnadu International Film Festival | June 09, 2024 | Best Documentary Short Film
Cooper Awards | December 31, 2025 | Best Documentary Short Film
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