Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze in North American Journey (1986)

North American Journey (1986)

NORTH 86

North American Journey

A feature-length documentary, shot on VHS during nine months on the road in 1986

In 1986, Mark Schulze and Patty Mooney loaded a car and drove through the United States, Canada and Alaska with a VHS camera, which was a rare thing to own back then. They had no plan beyond seeing what was out there. They weren’t married yet.

They came home, married in the Cleveland National Forest in 1987, and have been making films together ever since.

  • Miles driven 25,000
  • Months on the road 9
  • VHS cameras 1
  • Festival awards 2
North American Journey, 1986: the trailerThe full film is below

Unlock the Full Film

See the full documentary for $5.

View

The route

The trip went north from California, through Oregon and British Columbia, and up the Alaska Highway into the Yukon and Alaska. These are the places the camera stopped long enough to remember.

There were balloons over Fairbanks, the Eskimo Olympics, a young grizzly at the door, and a flight over Haines.

The footage has the warmth of the format it was shot on: the cars, the diners, the light. It’s a time machine.

  1. Yosemite

    California

    Granite walls and waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada.

  2. Trinity Alps

    Northern California

    Wilderness peaks in the far north of the state.

  3. Crater Lake

    Oregon

    The deep blue lake in the crater of an old volcano.

  4. Victoria

    Vancouver Island, British Columbia

    The provincial capital, across the water from Vancouver.

  5. Expo 86

    Vancouver, British Columbia

    The World’s Fair, open in Vancouver that summer.

  6. Barkerville

    British Columbia

    A restored gold rush town in the Cariboo.

  7. The Signpost Forest

    Watson Lake, Yukon

    Thousands of signs from hometowns everywhere, nailed up along the Alaska Highway.

  8. A bike in a shop window

    Whitehorse, Yukon

    A neon-colored mountain bike in a sporting goods store. The beginning of a forty-year obsession.

  9. Down the Yukon River

    By raft

    Floating north toward the gold rush country.

  10. Dawson City

    Yukon

    The old Klondike town.

  11. Fairbanks

    Alaska

    Hot air balloons over the city, and the Eskimo Olympics.

  12. Denali

    Alaska

    A night spent alongside a caribou.

  13. Seward

    Alaska

    A harbor town on the Kenai Peninsula.

  14. Haines

    Alaska

    A flight over Haines.

  15. Skagway

    Alaska

    The gateway to the Klondike, where the stampeders of 1898 started north.

Snapshots from the road

Prints from the trip, in the order the road reached them.

California

Where the route began.

Half Dome in Yosemite against a blue sky with one cloud
Half Dome, Yosemite.
Close view of the cracked granite face of Half Dome
The face of Half Dome, up close.
Mark Schulze, tiny against the split trunk of a giant redwood
Mark at the foot of a giant redwood.

Oregon

Snow still on the rim.

Patty Mooney leaps from a snowy tree stump above Crater Lake, arms spread wide
Patty takes flight above Crater Lake.

British Columbia

Vancouver Island and the Cariboo.

A dragonfly with banded black and white wings resting on a metal rail in front of flowers
A dragonfly in Victoria.
Visitors walk the dirt main street of Barkerville between weathered wooden buildings
The main street of Barkerville.

Yukon

Up the Alaska Highway to the Klondike.

Three dancers in red sequins and hats pose around an older man in a plaid shirt seated on stage
On stage at the Follies in Whitehorse.
Mark Schulze in a rainbow cap and blue fleece holds up an Arctic grayling at the river’s edge
Mark and an Arctic grayling.
A gravel main street in Dawson City with false-front buildings and a hillside behind
The gravel streets of Dawson City.

Alaska

From the Kenai Peninsula to the Inside Passage.

Patty Mooney laughs as she holds up a salmon on a dock in Seward
Patty and a salmon on the dock at Seward.
Broadway in Skagway, lined with 1980s cars and old storefronts below steep green mountains
Broadway, Skagway.
Wooden grave markers among spruce trees, several dated April 3, 1898, Chilkoot Trail
Gold rush graves near Skagway. Several are dated April 3, 1898, the day of the avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail.

Where the mountain biking started

The film holds an origin story neither of them saw coming.

A trail in British Columbia

A friend pointed out a mountain biking trail. At the time it was a sport that barely existed.

A bike in Whitehorse

In a sporting goods shop, they spotted a neon-colored mountain bike in the window. That led to The Great Mountain Biking Video, Full Cycle: A World Odyssey, and a career filming the sport.

Why it matters

In 1986 you couldn’t look up what was around the next bend. You drove until you found out. There was no way to call ahead, no way to know whether the road held, and no way to see the footage until you got home.

That’s what makes this a record rather than a travelogue. The cars in the parking lots, the diners, the light on the Yukon: none of it was being preserved on purpose. It was just what was there.

Forty years later, that turns out to be the valuable part. The film keeps a way of traveling that has largely disappeared, with all the curiosity, endurance and self-reliance it took.

Awards and music

  • Best Feature DocumentaryLondon Film Awards
  • Best Feature DocumentaryNew York Film Awards

The original soundtrack by Candace Love has 33 tracks, written from the journey. Listen on Bandcamp.

About the film

Filmed
1986, during a nine-month overland journey
Where
The United States, Canada and Alaska
Format
Shot on VHS during the early years of independent video documentary, and restored from the original source tapes
Produced by
Crystal Pyramid Productions®
Distributed by
New & Unique Videos®

Ride along for all nine months. The full documentary unlocks for $5.

Unlock the full film

Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze are San Diego filmmakers and the co-founders of New & Unique Videos, making independent films since 1985.