AboutTheFilm

Political Sign Language - How one sign affected a Southern Indiana Community 

Is a documentary film, the first film from Knox Hedrick.  In it he explores how offensive, negative yard signs, often homemade, can affect small-town USA, in this case the small community of Washington County, Indiana.  With no major economy, and not much to offer besides quiet days and pitch-black nights, 40 percent of its residents commute to bigger cities in each direction for work and leisure.  Each direction has offensive signs about President Barack Obama along the road side.  Going south to the Louisville Metro is a sign that uses Presdient Obama's last name to spell out "One Bad Ass Mistake America," going north towards Seymour, Indiana, a barrel is painted black with yellow writing that reads "Obama Sucks." 

Hedrick says of the film: "I was looking to make a documentary film about the 2012 election and just couldn’t find my subject.  When I had friends down to Salem that I hadn’t seen in many years, we came upon the sign and they were affected in a very negative way.  I remarked to them how a couple of my family members agreed whole-heartily with the sign.  After much conversation about how disturbing the sign was to my friends they began to ask me questions like 'How long has that sign been there?'  I answered 'For as long as I can remember Barack Obama being president.'  

And then I told them about the sign going towards Scottsburg/Seymour that said “Obama Sucks.”  A friend said, 'Almost every way you want to drive to get to a larger population center.. you pass a negative sign about Obama.. how does that make you feel?'

And that is when I knew what my subject would be for my first film.  I wanted to know how people felt about the sign and all homemade signs for that matter.  This was an election year and Barack Obama won our state by one percentage point in 2008.  Could a sign like this affect the election?

When I talked to both political parties around the state for this film, I received lots of editorial responses about the sign in general, but when I asked "Could the sign affect an election?" Across the board the answer was 'Yes, you better believe it can.'