Empty America the winner of 10 film festival awards (i.e. Mindfield Film Festival, Golden Wheat Awards, Cooper Awards, Only the Best Awards, American Golden Picture Film Festival, and Florence Film Awards) is quickly becoming a rising star on the film festival circuit. Captured, by underdog filmmaker Barry Walton, the documentary is a snapshot of America during the early days of the pandemic's national shutdown. A mix of time-lapse photography, aerial drone footage, and organic hand-held shots of the roadside emptiness. The film shows America in a way never before seen and hopefully never to be seen again. Driven by sound bites from regional AM radio across the country, the piece begs to ask, how did we get here and what is the road back home?
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Director, Barry Walton is a working-class filmmaker with over 20 years of work in the in industry. With 5 documentaries and an Emmy under his belt, he's yet to fully see his work gain recognition on a national scale. With hopes of building a grassroots groundswell around the screening of this film, he's taking a bottom-up approach in festivals by winning the smaller venue first and asking the giants of the industry to "give us a chance".
News story with Kim DeGuilio from Channel 4 Detroit about the making of Empty America a documentary shot from coast to coast of the United States shut down during COVID-19.
An interview for Outlook Magazine, in India, on Covid-19 and children's health from the director of Empty America and The High documentaries.