A French filmmaker who is making a road trip documentary found what he was looking for during an overnight stop in the Youngstown area.
The segment he shot at the Davis Motel in North Lima will be included in his film.
Dorian Degoutte’s documentary will look into a unique topic: man’s emotional connection to the objects he loves.
He is telling the story partially through the eyes of people he meets on the road as he travels from New York to Detroit.
Degoutte spent the night at the Davis Motel last week. He found the authenticity he was seeking in the independently run business and its owner, Murray Davis.
The motel sits on the stretch of state Route 7 near the Ohio Turnpike access ramps.
Degoutte expects to finish his film, “Fiesta,” in a year or so. He intends to return to the cities where he stopped for shooting – including Youngstown – to present screenings.
Last week’s stop at the Davis Motel was actually his second. The 34-year-old spent a night there three years ago, when he first started shooting.
The reason for the return is that he expanded the theme of his film and is retracing his initial voyage to get more footage at each stop.
The original inspiration for the film grew from his love for his old car. The 1997 Ford Fiesta was given to him by his grandfather. It’s a basic compact car, with few luxuries. But it meant a lot to Degoutte.
“It was my first car, and it became a sentimental object to me,” he said. “It was old and rusty, but it was hard for me to junk it.”
The compact car had about 350,000 miles on it.
Even though it had been assembled at a French plant, Degoutte wanted to drive it to Detroit – the home of Ford Motor Co. – for its final voyage. He had the vehicle shipped from his hometown of Vierzon, France, to New York, and then drove it to Michigan.
At the time, his film was to be a final pilgrimage to the city where Ford is headquartered.
But his father’s death after that first foray in the states spurred the filmmaker to expand the nature of his work. He gave the film a more expansive theme – one that ponders the relationship between man and the objects that he becomes close to.
“I am not a car guy,” Degoutte stressed. “I am interested in the link people have with an object. After the death of my father, I had to remove his stuff, and again I was not able to throw away things. Then I realized that the topic was not man and cars, but man and things – objects.
Why we cannot throw away things, get sentimental with them, accumulate them … why objects collect memories that keep you in touch with someone and become an extension of yourself.”
Degoutte is again making the trip alone, doing all of the interviews and camera work by himself.
He is taking the exact same highway route through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan that he took the first time.
That meant another night at the Davis Motel, where Davis was happy to see him again.
The motel owner has a strong attachment to objects that bring back memories, making him a perfect subject for the film.
“I met Murray the first time and befriended him,” Degoutte said. “He gave me a warm welcome in the lobby, which is like a small museum of the motel. Every object in it tells the story of the motel.”
Davis was surprised when Degoutte returned to his motel.
“I enjoyed seeing him,” Davis said. “I consider him a friend.”
On his first visit, Davis rode around with his guest in the Ford Fiesta.
“I can vouch for his sincerity,” he said. “He is working on finishing the movie, and he is skilled at his craft.”
Degoutte is no longer driving the Fiesta on his current tour. The vehicle broke down and is currently in a mechanic shop in Nazareth, Pa. Degoutte is finishing the trip in a rented car.
Even with the expanded theme, his process hasn’t changed much between the two trips.
He captures his encounters with the people he meets and gets them to reveal the objects they will never throw away.
“On the first trip, it was about a relationship with my car,” Degoutte said. “I wanted to feel the loneliness of my travels.”
That mindset still underscores his film, but Degoutte is now delving deeper into the people he encounters.
In France, Degoutte works as a director of photography for hunting, fishing and sports television programs.
But he is attracted to intellectual documentaries, like the one he is making.
The film will be Degoutte’s first full-length movie. He is still in the fundraising process, with a goal of $100,000, and is seeking grants from French government sources.
He showed Davis a segment of the film, and the motel owner was impressed.
“I especially appreciated the video of my daughter’s [Allison Pitinii Davis] poem from her award-winning book, ‘Line Study from a Motel Clerk,’ about the Davis Motel,” he said.
Pitinii Davis is a poet and professor at The Ohio State University who spent a lot of time at the motel while she was growing up. Her book was published in 2017.
The video, created by Degoutte, features an actor reading the poem and includes scenes from the motel.
“I felt grateful to Dorian for the beautiful tribute,” Davis said. “He is a very talented film producer, and I’m looking forward to the finished product.”
An interview with Davis will also be in the film.
“His theme on why people cherish items is interesting,” he said. “[Degoutte] asked me what item from the motel I most want to keep. I thought for a moment and I knew the answer: the motel office’s desk bell, which my father bought over 50 years ago. [My father] wrote a short message inside the bell about how business was going in 1966.”
Like the filmmaker’s Ford Fiesta, he noted, it’s an object that was originally owned by a beloved family member.
Pictured at top: Murray Davis, owner and operator of the Davis Motel in North Lima, and filmmaker Dorian Degoutte. The two are outside the motel, which will be included in the film.