About the Film

After public mass shootings, the national gun debate consists of predictable talking points that focus on the object and neglect the underlying causes. However, firearms are unlike other objects. For some Americans, they are the symbols of personal identity and community. For other Americans, they represent racial oppression and violence.

American Totem explores Americans’ emotional connection to firearms, and the power of this object to both create and destroy community. Taking a non-partisan approach, diverse communities, gun rights activists, gunshot victims and community organizers share their stories; and historians, philosophers, and sociologists offer their viewpoints. Read more about the film at www.americantotem.com

About the Director

Director/producer Sue Hilderbrand is a political talk show host and college professor, based in Chico, CA. In 2016, she set out on a journey across the country to talk with Americans about firearms, and to document the solutions to gun violence. What she found was not what she expected.

Reviews

“A superb documentary, that looks past the partisan abstractions of the 'gun rights' debate to show how different cultural communities understand and use firearms. What sets it apart is the way in which it invites each community to speak for itself, and gives each a respectful hearing. It should be a model for public discourse.”

— Dr. Richard Slotkin, Wesleyan University, Olin Professor of English and American Studies

“Critics have long held that the gun was a phallic symbol, the symbol of an aggressive potent virility. But the film shows it is much more than that: it is an extension of our selves, a magic wand that restores all that masculinity that has been lost to the forces of modern society.”

— Dr. Michael Kimmel, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies / Executive Director, Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities

"In addition to providing an excellent data-driven analysis of gun violence in the United States, American Totem also offers a visually rich look at the ways Hollywood and the gun industry have inculcated a narrative that romanticizes gun use and killing by the 'good guys'...Thought provoking without being biased."

— Robert Speer, Newsreview.com