American Auto - Tiny Elephant Films
Trailer
American Auto is a story of two used car salesmen trying to make a living by selling the very product that has built their community. It’s the American dream: selling an American product in a down and dirty American town. Ironically, it is the old, beaten-up cars that sometimes reflect the lives of people in this community. Yet it is here – the last place you’d expect – that we find something seemingly gone from more corporate America, and that’s honesty. American Auto is only a few miles from the River Rouge plant where the very first Model-T rolled off the assembly line.
A majority of the cars they sell are on their last stretch of life. This is a “B” lot. Most of the cars here sell between $250 and $2500. Mostly, they buy old trade-ins from the big named dealers down the road. Brent and Tom’s small car lot has become the modern day barbershop, where all walks of life come to catch up on the local gossip. Instead of cutting hair, they push rust-rockets over the curbs.
Wayne, a small, integrated city, sits on the outskirts of Detroit. It would best be described as blue collar. With the Ford truck plant taking up most of Michigan Avenue, a remainder of the road leading up to Dearborn (Ford headquarters) has become a strip of used car dealers. On this historic road, the very first car dealerships opened up on the corners of cornfields. In Wayne, if you don’t work for Ford or the automotive industry, you’re probably unemployed. Americans are attracted to someone who is struggling as most of us do for a living.
Jeffrey DeChausse, Director & Co- Executive Producer
Jeff’s involvement with film runs in his family. His father started in Radio in 1961, and developed television in Detroit for past 34 years. When Jeff was fifteen, he was running camera for live television. For the past fifteen years Jeff has worked in the creative side of advertising. Living in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Boston. He has created campaigns for Budweiser, Monster.com, Nextel, Wilson Sports and many other Fortune 500 companies. His true passion, though, is public service work. He created unprecedented publicity for such organizations as The Audubon Society and the Environmental Law & Policy Center. His work for the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) anti-landmine campaign, helped to influenced over 120 countries to sign a landmine bill. PHR’s support helped the international campaign to go on and win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jeff has received over 30 awards for his print and television campaigns. His work has been recognized by The Cannes International Advertising Festival, The New York One Club, The Clio’s, The British Design and Art Directors Club and The New York Art Directors Club. His recent television campaign for Ad Council of America’s “Feeding Hungry Children” has achieved great success, and was nominated for an award from The Directors Guild of America. Jeff has recently signed on as a director with Boxer Films in Los Angeles.