AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: GREG PEERCY
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About This Video
Americans in Berlin 2003: Greg Peercy. Another portrait in the Berlin documentary series. The project documents the American creative community in early-2000s Berlin before the city's transformation into a tech hub. Van was 28 and recording everything.
Transcript
oh my God in 2003 I lived in Berlin as part of Tom Sax's nsis installation at
the Deutsche gugenheim I was 28 years old and I had a social life there and through friends I met a bunch of
Americans who were living in Berlin at the time this was 2 years after September 11th 2001 and I began filming
these interviews on September 11th 2003 so um where are you from and when
did you move to berland I'm from Kentucky small town of Kentucky and I uh let's see February of Groundhog's Day
1993 I moved to East Germany in a little town called hland and I was there for 2 years before I came to Berlin so I've been in Berlin
now huh 9 years so why did you move to uh same reason everyone I know came because of a
man and did that how did that work out it didn't matter I was out of America were you glad to be out of
America sorry were you glad to be out of America I had been I had been um waiting for the
chance to leave for several years and why is that um I guess it's because I had the dubious distinction of seeing
Society from a different angle um and I saw that um where um it was heading and I knew that
it was not heading in a direction that I needed my life to be involved with so were there any um specific events
that you can think of that kind of maybe put the put the hook in you or no just you know just personal things but I just
felt like that I you know the the whole uh the whole transparent
um the whole transparent what Uber flesh the whole transparent um what's uber flesh L off English
um phoniness of the whole of society and the way Society was going and and how
you know you were you were you were what you possessed more than who you are or what you were doing with your life and you know I felt
like that that was not necessarily where I needed to be so I came to Germany and I started first
teaching um English to kindergarten children and um University students
and so on and so forth and then I came to Berlin and Berlin I started with the social in the social um area of helping
the homeless and the street people and um even though we don't you know the problem is not like it is in
America that there's much more help there's really no reason for anyone to be homeless in Germany but there's always someone that's going to fall through the cracks so there those are
the people that I work with and did you work in that industry and a little bit but not to the extent that I do here I
mean it is it is my life or well not my whole life I suppose but um it is a big part of my
life but I you know but I also travel on the other end of of the social Spectrum you know I was at the lunch at the embassy Monday so I mean you know it's
just I get to see every aspect of society here I'm sorry I'm sorry what was the
lunch at the end just girlfriends I know who's you know Embassy people and they said come to
lunch and I was like okay so I did was not anything political it was a social thing and you know I just
yeah and you know even though I also did the same thing in America it's it's it's a different thing here you know it you
know in America it's more if you're from you know the upper Upper Crust of
society or the upper echelon Society you don't you know you might feed the homeless people food that you might
possibly eat but it's more done as an ego situation as I here here the people you
know it's it it's more of a I don't know brothership
Brotherhood kind of sort of thing even though there's a there's a stronger social program there stronger social
programs here you know and I find that that that more you know even though I'm complain about the Germans and how self-centered and how they don't have
any respect for anyone they actually do more so than the Americans do you know because because they will volunteer or they will help you out or they will you
know stop and give you directions whereas an American usually doesn't have time they're going to one of their six jobs so they can pay for their
BMW and you know and I see that happening here too you know and after 11 years of living here I see a lot of a lot of changes in the you know
especially in the East a lot of changes in the way the people perceive um possessions
and you know what do you think um accounts for that I think I have
MTV MTV MTV Hollywood and MTV people they do see it and like get I
mean I hear it all the time I mean you know being from Kentucky I hear oh Kentucky Fried Chicken or um the you know contu movie or blah blah blah blah
blah blah and it's you know they they see the the um what's the word I have real trouble with English words
sometimes the um cliche of what the American people are but they the American people I find are
basically cliches I'm not saying they're all bad my grandmother's one of the most wonderful people that's ever walked the face of the Earth but she's a
cliche you know and um they don't know any better and until the last couple of years I'm not going
to say 911 but because of that I think that they really realized that there are some
problems you know there are some major problems s you think the Americans realize that oh well the Americans most definitely realize that I don't know that they think that there's I don't
know that they know that there's anything they can do about it but they most definitely realize that and you know but as far as the uh the German
Society they they've also picked up on it there anything that you miss about being home or about
America food or the food no because I can find I cook and I can find anything I need here um
I you know I miss my grandmother's and I miss running around in my pajamas in the woods and I miss you know picking blackberries and I miss you know but I
find after my last visit I found that everything that I miss no longer exists you know I was I I I had culture
shock the last time I was home i' been away for 5 years was three years ago so there's been a lot of changes since then but um I had culture shock I mean it was
just total and complete it was just totally and completely different world for me was there any that just sticks
out in your mind that you didn't recognize or the people the people had become more and
more uh unpersonalized me of that movie with I think it was Julie Chrissy The Stepford Wives I mean they were all like walking around in a days and I was after being there a week I was like okay I'm coming
I'm going to figure out what the deal is and found out that through my research or through my talking to the people that
that they were divided into two groups they were divided in the groups that were angry and they were invited and then there was a second group that was
so ignorant that they didn't know what was happening you know and that was something that had grown in the five
years that you were oh absolutely I mean I had always known it you know because I was always you know I always was into
what was happening in the world around me um but you know in that 5 years that I was gone I was just amazed that just
you know how I mean it was like a bunch of limings it it was it was really amazing it it was it caused me I mean I was in
grief for the people and where were you was this in Kentucky I was in Kentucky I was in North Carolina I was in New York
I was in you know New York was amazing I was like where am I you know I felt like I was in a on a movie set in a movie
that I really didn't even want to be in and um so it's not just you know you know you saw well small town America
okay yeah but you know New York City also what was what was New York how was it the biggest problem that I had with
New York was um the fear that the people had and this was this was pre 911 but it was the fear
that people had in small things that we used to do like buying grass I mean it was just
what you know heroin but grass and you know and it was just it was very difficult for me to understand and then
you know in Kentucky where grass is the number one cash crop over tobacco even which is the
second producer of the world of tobacco but we grow more grass in Kentucky it was just like people wouldn't even talk
about it not even in their homes you know and I talk to them now and they're like what's going on in the world can you tell us we don't know they're not
telling us everything they're censoring the news you know they know they knew nothing about the um the the protests
here in Europe about anti-war you know they don't even know they didn't even know about you know protest were happening in their own
country in like California or so the Press chose not to cover it or you know we're blocked from covering it and and
I'm not a political person but I just felt like that you know the home of the free and the Brave had changed into something that wasn't what
necessarily and then right after I came here the the the what was it the the Plano was no was it Plano Waco the Waco
deal happened and I was you know that that not only upset me but embarrassed me but then the problems that they had
with the Cubans and I was like this is insanity I mean this is total and complete Insanity these people are
riding pieces of Styrofoam to place where there's where the symbol of this country is a woman holding a light that says bring us you're tired you're hungry
your huddled masses we shall set them free and they're being arrested I mean what is this I mean
really and I feel like that you know luckily I was born you know I had a charm life and I was in that part of
society where I had everything and and all the important things and and blah blah blah blah blah but you know I
realized that that was not important and I saw people around me who didn't have that who were treated like less than dirt and you know and I just don't
really feel like that that's a civilization do you do you have uh any
hope or optimism uh Absolut yeah in maybe 7500 years maybe maybe what what did you think of
this past election of he cheated he cheated um I mean we know he cheated and
I feel like what you know I feel like what will happen is it will that America is turning into what
Russia or East Germany or you know that all that is I feel like that all the land and everything will within the next
couple of years belong to the government do you feel Freer here than you oh absolutely but I see that I see that you know here in Germany it's becoming a lot
like America in 10 years I've seen a a lot a lot a lot of changes in 10 years a lot you know I've seen them come in and
clean up areas and you know I mean certainly we we certainly didn't have 42nd Street here in Berlin
but I've seen them come in and clean up whole entire neighborhoods simply because they were not shiny and new and
you think that America is contributing to that um I well I know America's contributing to that but the people are allowing them you know allow the America
Propaganda machine is so strong and is so um involved as it always has been
with Hollywood and now MTV that that is what is fueling all this I mean you know the people in in in in in these
little islands in the South Pacific where they have no electricity have people taking turns riding bicycles to
run a generator to watch a Baywatch I mean come on people you know every week they get
together and I know this because I had someone that was turning was to ride the bicycle so that they could watch Pamela Anderson jiggle across the state or the
screen and you know I just and the stupidity I'm sorry but the stupidity that I found in America was
just totally and completely unbelievable what do you think it accounts for that stupidity the what accounts for the stupidity is that the people are so
involed in going to work to pay for what they've got so that they can feel like or so they can look like there's
somebody that they can't worry about what's going on anywhere else in the world and whoever it is that the powers
that be you can call it the government or the president the CIA that whoever took
that and used that to their advantage and I'm not saying that the American people are stupid but I'm saying they
just weren't paying pay attention and now they find themselves in this mess and you I really don't
expect it to be so settled in our lifetime I expect it to get much worse and I expect it you
know I I don't see how there's any way I mean even if tomorrow they woke up and said okay we're going to change everything it will still take 50 years
how long do you see yourself in Berlin always forever yeah even though these changes are sort of well I mean they're going to happen everywhere you know
they're happening in India they're happening in you know they're happening in everywhere you know I work with an organization and we have we have we have
uh houses all over the world in 150 countries and you know I hear every day
about how in you know uh yon yon that you know McDonald's is now in
Yen and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and you know yes and the you know America you know and I really
do think that you know I say MTV I think MTV is for the younger crowd but Hollywood since
19 since 1919 since 1920 because Berlin was the movie capital of the world and
you know since and most definitely since the 1940s have been making propaganda films and you know the American Dreams
but people if you don't learn anything from this interview the American dream is only possible when you sleep and
um you know it just you can make anything look great on film I mean we all know that and I I just really think
that that's a lot of it and I know lots of people that go to America and they you know expecting limousines to wait be there at
the airport for them and you know but Dash them off and you know in six weeks inba a um Hollywood movie star or
whatever um you know International Banker but it doesn't happen and I really don't feel like the American dream exists anymore I don't think that
the the the you know poor dirt farmer can turn unless they find coal on their land and cut the trees down and you know
totally change the landscape I just don't really think that it can be done like it was 50 60 years
ago I mean that's my opinion but I mean I've seen my friends and I just got a report yesterday from
someone who was there who has had a dead head okay a dead head who has been
visiting his other deadhead friends and they've been friends for 15 20 years they have nothing in common they don't
know each other anymore he was in Berlin for a year a year and in that year he says I do not know these people anymore
it's like there is some kind of drug or something in the water and I think I think a lot of it has to do with fear I think they're
using fear you know and I and I you know the girl that said that American politics was not like the third right was
right I mean you know they might they can it caused a lot of lot of I don't know if you know about that that happened here in
Germany and it caused a lot of uh um uproar but they were she was right I mean it really really really really is
and I see it I don't know the story um the in in administer I don't remember now who it was but someone had had
compared excuse me Bush's political party with that of Hitler's and
it I see it I mean I can I I see it you know but like I say I got I got a
very clear view of it very early you know before I ever left here I you know I was seeing that there were things happening that just wasn't quite right so
Products & Tools Mentioned
- MTV mentions
- McDonald's mentions
People Referenced
Tom Sachs, Greg Peercy