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Michael showed up tonight right on time at 11:15 pm, and off we went to a trendy and crowded establishment called Bar 6 in Palermo Soho.
Over a great bottle of Malbec, steaks and grilled salmon, Michael began to regale me with his stories. His father is Lebanese-Argentine, his mother Argentine and British. He speaks perfect English with a British accent. Michael grew up in one of the wealthier suburbs of Bs As, attended university in Indiana and lived and worked in Los Angeles for several years after graduating.
His relationship with an exotically beautiful and successful young businesswoman who had come to LA via Europe and the Middle East (She picked him up for their first date in her Jaguar!) didn't survive their move to Argentina when Michael's U.S. work visa expired a year or two later. Having had a shift in values after this experience, she is now in New York City working for an international non-profit organization. They talk sporadically and remain friendly, but Michael prefers to turn the page.
Since returning to Argentina, Michael has worked as a kind of adventure guide in Patagonia, as an assistant producer and as a logistics liaison for multiple productions in Argentina. He has also traveled widely within the country, both north and south.
As we became more comfortable with one another, Michael began to tell me about a project he was working on in the Puna (La Puna), a vast and fabled desert-like plateau in Northern Argentina that he had visited in 2006. Michael calls this area "the neglected North." Patagonia in the south gets all of the attention and tourist traffic, but Michael had been moved by the almost mystical power of the north.
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He shared several compelling personal stories with me about the unique people he had met in 2006 and their equally unique way of life. One of these stories was about a brother and sister living on a one hectare oasis in the middle of the Puna, two days drive from even the most remote outpost. They had not spoken to one another in more than 10 years in a feud over the artesian water supply that feeds the oasis! Michael and his director wanted to film this story and several others that were equally interesting.
I was stunned by the power of these great, true stories. The oasis alone was Biblical in its implications, almost a Garden of Eden story despoiled by our inability to get along, even with those closest to us. I agreed to help as a producer of the project and we made plans to meet Michael's director Nicolas within the next few days to begin working on the details of a trip north in January.
What began to occur to me this night was that people such as Michael and his friends were probably to be found everywhere in America. They are already asking and answering our central question - What is America? - in absolutely unique and fascinating ways. Perhaps the key to this project is to find these people and to help them in any way possible, from simple coordination to brainstorming to financial help, partnerships and cross promotion. This suddenly seemed like a much more viable model to me than a gonzo road trip. The organizational structure of the project was already beginning to clarify, and I felt great about the trip!
