Five families, one impossible dream, and the whole messy truth of America.
Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the last of the six films, "The American Tapestry," filmmaker Gregory Nava takes viewers on an uplifting and challenging journey through the memoirs of five immigrant families, each one on a quest for its own American Dream. Beautifully interweaving accounts from several generations, Nava composes an astonishing tapestry of personal triumphs and tragedies, as each story of courage unfolds. The American Dream is an elusive thing, and the lives of the people in Nava's film are both triumphant and tragic, teeming with optimism and sometimes despair. They expose the finest and worst in America as well as what we feel most magnificent and dreadful. They are part of the many contrasting threads that make up the American tapestry — a complex portrait of a nation at the turn of the millennium.
Direction
Nava weaves five voices into one devastating chorus.
Editing
Generations collapse into each other like memory itself.
Director
Gregory Nava
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of Showtime's Y2K panic programming—turns out the millennium's real crisis was always who gets to belong.
Nava made this between Selena and Frida, using studio clout to fund something studios ignore: undocumented voices without Hollywood endings.
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