In classic Werner Herzog style, Little Dieter Needs to Fly frames a character you are instantly drawn to. The pacing, the cuts, and the way the story unfolds feel less like the editor imposing a style and more like a reflection of the character himself. Herzog allows Dieter Dengler to lead the film, and the result is a portrait that feels as much like an exploration of the human spirit as it does a recounting of war.
In 1966, Dengler was shot down over Laos while serving as a U.S. Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. Captured and imprisoned, he endured horrific conditions before escaping at a weight of just 85 pounds. Barefoot, he survived monsoons, leeches, and the constant threat of capture before being rescued. His escape is extraordinary, but what makes the film so compelling is Dengler himself. His ability to tell his story, with remarkable clarity and a quiet intensity, is the driving force of the documentary.
The pain and suffering Dengler experienced throughout his life are never far from the surface. From growing up in Germany during World War II, surviving Allied bombing raids, and enduring postwar poverty and beatings, to the horrors of captivity in Southeast Asia, his life is marked by hardship. Yet there is something in him that refuses to surrender. Herzog's camera captures a man who has found a way to live with his memories, even if the weight of those experiences never fully disappears.
We may never experience suffering on the scale of Dieter Dengler, but we all face our own struggles, losses, and moments when survival becomes the only objective. In that way, Little Dieter Needs to Fly becomes something more than a story about a prisoner of war who escaped against extraordinary odds. It asks us to consider where the strength to endure comes from, how we carry the things that have happened to us, and what it means to keep moving forward. Through Dengler, Herzog finds a story that is both profoundly personal and universally human.
In 2018, a phone call from Zac Bookman introduced me to an idea that would become one of the most ambitious productions of my career. His dream was to bicycle across America. I saw an opportunity to tell a uniquely American story through documentary filmmaking, capturing the country beyond the headlines and politics. In 2021, that vision became OpenGov Across America, a coast-to-coast journey that would test our limits in ways none of us anticipated.
From California wildfires and flash floods in Utah to freezing rain in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the ride was nearly derailed multiple times. Over 37 days on the road, I witnessed the country at the pace of a bicycle, from depleted reservoirs and massive cattle feedlots to Civil War battlefields and small-town diners. Along the way, conversations with people across nine states challenged my assumptions about our culture, our history, and what still brings us together.
The result was Crossing Lines: An American Ride, a documentary that goes beyond the physical challenge of cycling across America. It explores the people, landscapes, and experiences that shape our national identity.
Sometimes, the most revealing picture of a country comes from slowing down, listening, and seeing it for yourself.
Yet the most lasting impact of the journey came from what we witnessed between the crises. Moving across America by bicycle gave me time to see the country in a way that driving through it never could. I saw depleted reservoirs in the West, enormous cattle feedlots across Kansas, Civil War artifacts preserved by local residents, and communities wrestling with the meaning of their history. More importantly, I listened to people whose experiences rarely make it into national conversations. Their stories challenged my assumptions and forced me to confront a difficult question: How much do we really understand about one another when so much of what we believe about America comes from a distance? Somewhere along those miles, the film became about more than completing a ride. It became an attempt to find the common ground beneath our divisions and discover what still connects us.
Crossing Lines: An American Ride became the culmination of that journey, eventually reaching audiences on Amazon Prime and receiving recognition at the Seattle Film Festival in 2023. But for me, the film carries a deeper significance. I remember the uncertainty, the exhaustion, the setbacks, and the personal sacrifices required to bring it to life. I also remember the people we met and the moments that reminded me why the story mattered.
Documentary filmmaking can take you places you never expected to go, both physically and emotionally. Sometimes, the greatest reward isn't simply reaching the finish line. It's discovering something about the world, about other people, and about yourself that you could never have learned by staying where you started.
