Unpresidented Unity
In the wake of the 2016 U.S. election, we created an immersive 360º video experience – about grass-roots ways that people can help to diminish the negative social impacts some communities are experiencing, including discrimination and open aggression.
Watch the video (best on mobile) at youtu.be/lGM3iUxX6kM
This is not to refute the election, but going forward specifically to help victims of the new President’s explicit anti‑immigrant, anti‑non‑christian, anti‑science, anti‑woman, anti‑LGBTQ, yet notably pro‑sexual‑assault public statements.
This video will feature interviews with a Graphic Novelist, a Tibetan Lama, a Human Rights Activist, a College Professor, a Rabbi noted for Interfaith Tolerance teachings, a Reality Television coach, and more.
A still photo from a scene in “Unpresidented Unity”, a 360º video of interviews about how to counterbalance hatred in our local communities.
Additional Clarifications about this Project:
We are not interested in who voted for whom. We are aware that many Americans voted for Trump because they believe he will serve their interests well — particularly individuals with loyalties to Russia or Israel, high net worth, non-Mexican Latinos, self-insured, rural laborers, Christian fundamentalists, shareholders of certain corporate interests, as well as people who simply opposed Hillary Clinton or who expected that Trump would remove corporate influence from government. (To name a few). Please resist the temptation to tell us how you voted, or your reasons, since it’s irrelevant to this discussion.
Regardless of how you voted, we hope the president-elect will serve you well. We invite you to join our effort to protect those in need.
“Unpresidented Unity” is not a political campaign or statement, only a non-partisan attempt on a local level to improve the lives of victims of hate-crimes committed literally in the name of the president-elect.
This video will feature interviews with a Graphic Novelist, a Tibetan Lama, a Human Rights Activist, a College Professor, a Rabbi noted for Interfaith Tolerance teachings, a Reality Television coach, and more.
This project exists neither to support nor to challenge the legitimacy of the presidency, his tweets, the wisdom of his cabinet appointments, his foreign policy plans, his financial conflicts-of-interest, his attitude about the First Amendment for dissenters, his management of labor, healthcare, the environment, or any other aspect of the governance which is now his right.
It is also not our objective to challenge the structure of our elections, political parties, primaries, the electoral college, the boundaries of districts, voter identification, rights for ex-convicts, or any other aspect of our nation’s system of political choice.
A Note from the Producer:
While I have personal opinions about politics, this project is not about me.
I am doing this to help my female friend who had her crotch grabbed by someone who said, “Trump says I can do this”. This is for my Jewish friends who had swastikas painted onto their home, my gay friend whose car was vandalized with a letter explaining that his marriage would soon be illegal, and several friends of Latin descent who are Brooklyn-born American citizens and yet had strangers on the street yell to them that “Trump will send you home”. It’s for the woman who commutes on the same train as me, who stopped wearing her hijab because one day after the election someone tore it off her.
These are not “fake news stories” or “liberal media”; these are specific people I care about, who have each been hurt by others who felt empowered to commit these crimes because of language used during and before the 2016 election.
The president-elect does not speak for every citizen, and those of us who do not support bigotry can counteract his campaign rhetoric with good acts for those for those in our sphere of influence.
My only concern is the rise in hate-crimes which I have personally witnessed.
May our nation’s next president serve some of our population well; I am only trying to help those whom have already been harmed deeply — and the many more victims of discrimination and aggression that will emerge over the next four years.
— Aaron Sylvan
Executive Producer