Anything Goes, and How Did We Get Here?
a live concert movie meditation on democracy
Produced & Directed by Kate Chumley * Director of Photography & Visual Design Nathan James Leatherman
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A message from Kate:
Hey Everyone,
We shot the movie version of Jen’s show Anything Goes…And How Did We Get Here? over Memorial Day weekend. Today, July 4th, 2026, is the day we’re supposed to deliver the film, but our plan to edit nearly two hours of script and music in four weeks was ambitious and we’re not ready for the big reveal.
Turns out we’re in decent company, though.
Most of the guys whose names grace the edition of the Declaration of Independence on display at the National Archives didn’t put pen to parchment until August 2nd, 1776. New York had to be persuaded to join (powerful people in the Empire State tilted monarchist, it seems) and even then there were stragglers. The last signature wasn’t dry until after the winter holiday and the final edit wasn’t printed until January 18, 1777.
Sigh of relief. Pause for thought.
Democracy, as Jen wrote in a recent Substack, is done in drafts. And what we celebrate on July 4th isn’t so much a decision as a statement of intent, itself the product of many trial runs and false starts. The hardest work, figuring out what to be as a country, how to become it and how to keep it, to paraphrase Franklin…all that still lay ahead and continues to this day.
Here, in the Anything Goes edit suite, we’ve figured out this movie actually wants to be episodes. Or lessons, in keeping with the framework Jen built into the show. If our absolute goal is to gather the will to throw out a fake dictator and his actual fascist henchpersons… well, more is more. New videos every few weeks or months through 2028 will stoke the fire and help keep the people focused, we like to think.
The segment we’re sharing today is built around two songs. Insatiable describes the violent, vengeful American id unleashed on the world after 9/11. Satyagraha is an invocation to the student in all of us to learn from the past and make reason and love our guides. It reminds us that U.S. history, shot through with the “racism, militarism and extreme materialism” Dr. King warned about, also contains a strong template for prevailing against them.
I was with Jen and Stephan on 9/11, 2001. I remember Jen’s face that day. She saw what was coming. The fact that twenty five years later she can sign an email with the words “still overflowing with hope” says she has not given up on what might yet be. I love her for that, and for all she has given this country. Let’s enjoy her voice and think of these pieces as cradle songs for our very imperfect but still very young nation.
Happy 4th, 5th, 17th…and so on.
Love,
Kate