American Interior

Most Americans have probably never heard of 18th-century Welsh-born John Evans, the first white explorer to create a map of the Missouri River (his work was later used by Lewis and Clark during their highly publicized odyssey). But before that achievement, Evans embarked on an adventure to affirm the bizarre legend of Prince Madog, supposedly a 12th-century Welsh prince who arrived in the New World three centuries before Columbus and left the gift of the Welsh languages with an Indian tribe in the Midwest. In this documentary from filmmaker Dylan Goch and contemporary musician Gruff Rhys (who claims Evans as an ancestor), the latter follows the long-forgotten explorer's path to see if Evans's notion about Welsh-speaking Indians was correct. It's not much of a spoiler to affirm that Evans was wrong. Regardless, Rhys—who carries around a giant puppet to symbolize Evans—appears to have a grand time touring the American heartland and interacting with the locals. American Interior is a record of Rhys's expedition, a loose-limbed ramble that finds a slightly bewildered foreigner adrift in some of the more colorful regions of the country. While the joke eventually wears a bit thin, Rhys is a charming presence with deadpan wit. Recommended. (P. Hall)