1000 Journals

2007     1×88     Color: HDCAM     English

A film by Andrea Kreuzhage

N. American premiere – AFI Fest/Los Angeles.

IN ADDITION TO: Indianapolis Intl, San Francisco Intl, Delray Beach, Best of Fest (Indie Express Burbank), Detroit Windsor Intl, Atlanta Documentary, Festivaletteratura (Mantova, Italy), Port Townsend, Cambridge (UK), Movies that Matter (Calgary), Hot Springs, HD Fest (NYC), San Diego Women’s Film Fest, St Louis Intl, Victoria, Salem, Durango and San Joaquin International Film Festivals

Exhibition at the San Francisco MOMO, Phoenix Museum, and touring Italy as a Festivaletteratura’s Pagine Nascoste selection

Selected for Realscreen Magazine “MIP PICKS”

In the summer of 2000 a San Francisco artist known only as Someguy released 1000 blank journals into the world. In them, he wrote: “This is an experiment and you are part of it. Add anything you like, then pass it on.” Three years later, journal number 526 found its way back to him. But where had the other 999 journals disappeared to? When filmmaker Andrea Kreuzhage became obsessed with that question, she set out with a camera to track them down. The result is her documentary 1000 JOURNALS. As she traveled the world, not only did she track down many of the journals but she also encountered nearly 500 people who had contributed to them. Passing through war-torn Croatia, the great cities of Europe, Australia and much of the United States, Kreuzhage introduces us to a remarkably inventive and diverse cast of characters. As her camera rolls, they discuss their individual experiences with the journals as well as their participation in the global community the journals helped form. In Toronto, she finds Matt, who’s trying to track down the journal he gave to Seth while on a bus in Milan. Catching up to Seth, she discovers that he took it to Zagreb, where Dampas picked it up in a bar and then gave it to his scout troupe. When that trail goes cold in the Croatian mountains, she follows yet another trail, leading her to the Los Angeles hills, the port of Marseille and then halfway around the world to Melbourne. In New York, she finds Julie, who is busy creating a new entry using debris she picked up at Ground Zero. Journal 988 turns up riddled with dead cockroaches taped onto the pages. More often than not, these traveling journals are not just written in but also heavily adorned, evolving from blank page to veritable objets d’art. Bursting with fabric, photos, ribbons, stickers, ticket stubs, napkins, money, postage stamps and many other strange and unusual artifacts, each of Someguy’s journals is a fascinating portrait of its unique trek across our planet and the remarkably creative people encountered along the way.