The MINDDRIVE Coast To Coast trip that took place this Summer is looking for an outlet. The story is just too
good, too succulent, too rich, not to be told.
The 1977 Lotus Esprit, transformed by a group of high school students and their mentors, into a custom-built, all electric plug-in car took to the highways and byways of America, traveling from San Diego, California to Jacksonville, Florida. The car was a champ!
All of their calculations worked! It was chopped up from its original shape, made to have a lower profile and a more aerodynamic shape, weight was removed, batteries and motor were installed, tires were chosen – all of this in collaboration between students and mentors.
Oh, yes ~ we documented the trip. We hired a film crew to come and do it right – from sun up to sun down, shooting interviews with our students, with the mentors and shooting the countryside as we continued on down the road – 2400 plus miles on the road…and miles and miles of footage.
But someone has to thread all of this together and capture the real story. A story of transformation of another kind. It’s not about the car now is it? It’s about how the lives of these students and these mentors were transformed, forever changed, permanently altered.
This week, our postproduction documentary filmmaker, Cara Myers decided to try to fill in the gaps (so to speak) and shoot a little of the back story. Where did these students come from? Who are these mentors? Who is behind this program, called MINDDRIVE? So, we shot – from sun up to sun down (again), getting the perspective of the parents, the students, the mentors, the president of the board, (Bob Berkebile, shown above), and the founders.
We are getting ready to launch a fundraising effort in order to finish this piece – it’s sort of a cliff hanger, don’t you think? How will the story unfold? Stay tuned…and look for us on Kickstarter.com in the next month – we’ll let you know how you can participate. As someone once said, “It takes a village…”.
