By PETER RUGG
Two Toronto-based documentary filmmakers who just visited Kansas City had a simple offer: In exchange for a place to crash, they offered up their services. Among the things mentioned in their craigslist ad:
• Make coffee
• Practice for a first date
• Data entry
• Come up with marketing campaigns
• Edit your writing
• Work as Lamaze partners
• Shave your legs
• Chauffer you
• Upload songs to your iPod
Ashley Baylen and Sarah Bauder got the idea of trading trade for a place to stay when they joined a Canadian band on a U.S. tour two years ago. They ended up relying on strangers from city to city for basics like food and shelter. The trip inspired them to make a film based on an extensive tour of the U.S. and Canada, relying solely on the kindness of strangers. They left Toronto in June with $100, a ’97 Mercury Sable, two laptops and a video camera small enough to fit in a purse. Last week they landed in Kansas City.
Baylen and Bauder developed a list of things they’re willing to do in exchange for lodging, but they’re also open to suggestions. In Chicago, they earned $100 by cleaning human teeth to be used in an animation sequence. In Kansas City, they earned a couch for two nights by helping to clean a building under renovation.
“Your sitting at a park bench, and if someone sits down you strike up a conversation, and you mention ‘Oh yeah we’re working on this project,’” 30-year-old Bauder says. Sure, there is some danger in being offered room and board by complete strangers. But they’ve stayed out of trouble so far. “Most of it is based on our instincts about the person.”
In each city they interview several people on the same set of questions, all of which are straightforward and relate to universal human ideas: What does love mean to you? Do you believe goodness is intrinsic? Where does pain and intolerance come from?
“You get different versions of the same answer from everyone,” Bauder says. So far, they’ve interviewed 500 people. They plan to pass through Oklahoma City on their way to the West Coast. Then they’ll head north through British Columbia on their way home. They estimate they’ll finish with 800 hours of footage, which they’ll need to edit down to a feature-length documentary.
They left Missouri Friday night, but they still have a few more weeks of driving ahead. If you know someone who can hook Baylen and Bauder up with a couch to sleep on during their trip through the West, contact them through their MySpace page here.
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