The Work in Progress
What’s it rated? Not rated
When? 2026
Where’s it showing? The Palm Theatre in SLO
on Sunday, Oct. 11, 4 p.m.
Ian Cheney directs this documentary that spent six months traveling to various American cities to get 100 ordinary people, mostly 30- and 80-year-olds, to sit down and have civil conversations. They were given a box of cards with questions to ask one another, such as, “How would you describe America in one word?” “Who belongs in America?” “And what is the definition of patriotism?”
Making Americans sit down, look each other in the eye, and express their views lowers the temperature on our divisions. We’re so used to hearing from the “other side” in all caps or via cruel internet memes. It’s a reminder that people can disagree respectfully, sort of like Republicans and Democrats of the past. The point is, we’re not so different. Ask yourself who benefits from keeping us divided? Because it’s not us!
The film features Robert Reich, professor, political commentator, and former secretary of labor under Bill Clinton. He also worked in both the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter administrations and was a member of Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. The documentary is screening Oct. 11 at 4 p.m. only, and it makes a nice palate cleanser going into the midterms. We’re all Americans. (106 min.)
—Glen Starkey
