Jewel Box for a Dream

(L’Amerique en boite)

Directed by Ludovic Grden and Isabelle Casano

Genre: Documentary/ Travel

Country: France (2008)

Sunday March 29

Circle Cinema, 10 S Lewis Ave, Tulsa, OKLAHOMA 74104

This event is part of the Tulsa French Film Festival

“Jewel Box for a Dream” (French version: “L’Amerique en boite”) is a film documentary made by a French company, Absolute Production, from their experience in Tulsa in 2007.

Ludovic Grden and Isabelle Casano documented the unburying of the Tulsa time capsule, the Plymouth Belvedere.

On June 15th 1957, during the Oklahoma semi-centennial celebration, the city of Tulsa held a contest where participants were asked to guess what the city’s population would be fifty years later, in 2007.

The winner of the contest was to receive a brand new 1957 gold Belvedere Plymouth buried in a sealed capsule downtown, to be dug up a half-century later. According to the contest organizers, this jewel of the American automobile industry was the perfect symbol of 1957 civilization for future generations.

On June 15th 2007, exactly on schedule, the car and all the artefacts it contained, were unveiled in broad daylight amid thousands of curiosity seekers who came from all over the world for the occasion. The list of population estimates stored on a roll of microfilm somewhere within the capsule would eventually determine the winner.

 

More than just a car, was the Belvedere rather a symbol of a long-gone era, captured and buried in the hopes of preserving a fading American dream?

The film, shot like a travel book, gradually explores this adventure through rare archival images and numerous interviews, raising questions about the motives that drove the organizers to embark on this amazing undertaking in 1957. It also offers insight into how Americans viewed that particular time in their history fifty years ago. The film’s soundtrack navigates the viewer along this entertaining journey, dotting the landscape with popular Blues and Rock'n'Roll tunes, invoking a bit of nostalgia along the way.

What will happen to this symbol after fifty years underground? Leading up to the big day, participants and spectators alike reveal their hopes and anxieties, telling us their stories and sharing their feelings about a dream that they didn’t want to see disappear.