Monuments are intended to preserve a certain legacy or story. There’s a certain level of truth behind them, as they serve to tell stories about significant people and events. Director Tom Trinley, traveling in a 1965 Airstream trailer, sets out to visit various American monuments to seek out the truth behind them in his American epic Monumental Myths.
The film was inspired by the book Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong by sociologist James W. Loewen, who also makes an appearance in the documentary. One of the strongest aspects of Trinley’s work is the supporting cast. Loewen is joined also by Lonnie Bunch, Director of the Smithsonian. Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, also provides commentary. (Fans of The Sopranos may be aware of Zinn as well). Adam “Fortunate Eagle” Nordwall, author and Native American activist, also appears. Trinley uses these four to bolster and supplement his own findings, and it works well to make the point that American monuments may not be all they appear to be.
Trinley’s visits across the USA include Lincoln’s Log Cabin birthplace in Kentucky, Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, Ft. Pillow in Tennessee, and various other monuments across America. Trinley speaks to the locals, tour guides, historians, and tourists at these sites to try and gain a better understanding of these monuments and their ties to America and its legacy. At times eye-opening and always interesting, Trinley brings an infectious charm to the proceedings. Think of Trinley as Guy Fieri. Instead of trying to find the best chili dogs and burgers across the country, he instead is searching for deep American truths.
The film, originally released in 2004, was rereleased in October of 2023. It comes at a polarizing time in our country. With an upcoming, divisive presidential election, growing concerns about the economy, and racial strife still a pressing matter, Trinley’s explorations may serve as a reminder of what makes our country so great, and why it’s still worth fighting for. The film may work in a library screening for modern American history and politics. It will also work for students studying political science and history. This educational documentary may also serve well in a film screening series about modern America.
Filming of Monumental Myths began September 11, 2001 and continued for eight years. Since the film’s initial release in 2009, the themes of historical censorship and deeply-rooted myths and biases remain relevant. And responses are being expressed by Americans whose voices, histories, and identities have been misrepresented, and whose lives have been deeply affected. In response to the current national conscience, in 2023 — twenty-two years after location production began — a remastered and updated version of the film is now streaming on Prime Video and other platforms. The film brings back, posthumously, the sage and reasoned voices of historians and best-selling authors Howard Zinn and James Loewen.
Tom Trinley | Director
Tom Trinley is an Emmy-nominated broadcast documentary film producer, screenwriter, and finance executive. He is equally at ease on location, in an editing suite, or in a board room.
Mr. Trinley co-executive produced, wrote, directed, shot, co-produced, and co-edited Monumental Myths, a one-hour documentary that tells the unspoken stories related to America’s monuments and historic markers. He negotiated the film rights of a book, which the production was inspired by. The film was screened as a work-in-progress at the Independent Feature Project Market, New York, was the first feature film to be screened at select Apple Stores, and was scouted for pickup by HBO Documentaries. The film has streamed on multiple platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Kinema, and Vimeo on Demand.
Tom created, wrote, executive produced, produced, directed, hosted, and coordinated distribution of three seasons of the Notes from the Field environmental history interstitial series, which was distributed to over 75 public television stations nationally. He secured Sears as the corporate national sponsor. The 1999 season was nominated for two Midwest Regional Emmy awards and won two U.S. International Film and Video Festival awards for creative excellence and for editing.
More recently, Tom began writing screenplays. His first, Birds of Feather, is feature-length adaptation of a novel and has been an official selection or award winner at several film festivals.
Tom has acted as a consultant to independent productions, which aired on PBS member stations (The History of Money with James Earl Jones) and The History Channel (Mies Van der Rohe: The Farnsworth House). In his early career, Tom was introduced to broadcast and corporate finance and mentored by the chief financial officer of Tribune Broadcasting. While working as a financial analyst for a major television network, he prepared various reports including profit and loss statements, ratings summaries, sales pacing forecasts, daypart analysis, and television program profitability reports. He acted as liaison between the finance department and news, sales, engineering, and administration departments.
Director's Statement
Many of America’s monuments tell half-truths—or in some cases—outright lies. Many history textbooks follow the same pattern. But, I wasn’t taught this in school. I learned the whole story of our country’s past several years after graduating from college while doing research for my very first documentary series, which focused on American environmental issues.
Monuments—from the Latin monere, to remind—are made larger-than-life of long-lasting, solid materials such as granite and bronze for a reason: to impart an unquestionable truth about the past and to literally write a single-sided version of an event in stone so future generations won’t change the storyline. This seemed such a contradiction in a country whose democracy is dependent on the free speech of multiple viewpoints. I was compelled to make this film because I was both offended and concerned that special interest groups were presenting this propaganda as fact—and on public land for that matter.
Multiple Perspectives
In the film, I have attempted to present multiple perspectives so that viewers might begin to understand that history, like the people that make it, is complex. Issues aren’t as simple as textbooks and monuments present them to be. In fact, many textbooks and monuments don’t even attempt to describe the issue. They simply offer names, dates and places—an easy but unconstructive way of avoiding our sometimes-unpleasant past. Yet, many of the issues represented by statues, plaques, and historic sites are unresolved today. But you wouldn’t know that by reading the text or inscriptions, or listening to the tour guide’s scripted presentation.
Un-American
During the making and marketing of this film some people accused me of being “un-American.” I found it a paradox to be called un-American for adding back to history the voices of those who have been intentionally, or unconsciously, censored out by ill-informed or non-objective “historians” and civic groups. Being un-American, I believe, is to do nothing to build on our great country—to sit back and to criticize those who try to invite all Americans to secure their inalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” as articulated in the Declaration of Independence.
It’s Upsetting
The truth, hidden long enough, can be upsetting. It was for me. Ironically, the truth may even appear to be a lie because it contradicts the stories you’ve been told and the world you have lived in your whole life. How can that version of the story be true when it’s nothing at all like the story that I was taught?
But how can we resolve current social problems — or even debate about them — if we deny or ignore the decisions and events that created these problems ever occurred in the first place? When America’s monuments (and textbooks) remind us of our true, shared history—the good and the bad— they will force us, in author and sociologist James Loewen’s words, “to come face-to-face with the truth and then we can better deal with it and each other and create the America of the future.”
- Tom Trinley
Accolades & Awards
Monumental Myths was first screened as work-in progress in 2001 at the Independent Feature Project in New York City at the Angelika Film Center. The film went to screen at various Apple Stores in the US and London — the first feature film to do so. The 2023 remastered version contains over 150 new archival images and 90,000 frames of remastered footage and is currently being submitted to film festivals.
View the Press Release here.
View Additional Resources About American Monuments here.
To learn more about Monumental Myths visit Trinley Pictures here.
