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Long Way Home
The Cliff Vaughs Story
Boston born April 16, 1937. Civil Rights activist and photographer for SNCC in the Sixties. Endured beatings, stabbings, bayonets and jail while taking extraordinary photos of Southern scenes published in newspapers and magazines throughout the country. Marched with John Lewis. Had MLK's back at Selma.
With Julian Bond, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the cause from Hollywood celebrities. Instrumental in forcing the networks to open the local Los Angeles IATSE Cameraman's Union to blacks, women and minorities.
Civil Rights Activist Photographer Filmmaker KRLA News Reporter Easy Rider Seafarer Adventurer
Associate producer, preproduction stages of movie Easy Rider. Designed and built the Easy Rider bikes. Helped develop film's initial concept and themes, many of which were inspired by Cliff's experiences riding his chopper (and being shot at) in Arkansas while working for SNCC in the Sixties.
In 1976, tired of living with racism in America, Cliff took to sea in a 41-ft ketch, spending years as an expatriate seafarer, adventurer, and occasional smuggler, roaming the Caribbean and Pacific. In 1982, he spent six months in jail on federal charges (later dismissed) of smuggling cocaine, marijuana, and Jamaicans into Florida. In 1992, he bought a 44-foot ketch he named Amistad and spent the next twenty years at sea, until losing Amistad to pirates in Honduras in 2012, after which he returned to the United States. He died unexpectedly July 2, 2016, at the home we shared.
His contributions to Easy Rider and the independent film genre had been largely ignored and forgotten for decades, as Peter Fonda and others took credit for designing the bikes and the film's conception. Not until approximately 2010, when journalists seeking to uncover the mystery of the bike's design uncovered the truth and tracked Cliff down to interview him, did the full story of the bikes and the film's conception begin to emerge. Cliff's story is particularly relevant in this moment as our country struggles to reassess our history and address issues of systemic racism and White Supremacy that continue to plague our nation 250 years after its founding.
Email Daniella@daniellasapriel.com to request a Treatment with links to video trailers and to obtain information regarding Life Rights.
Cliff Vaughs Remembered
Freedom Summer Hollywood Easy Rider Seafarer Adventurer PIRATES!
Cliff Vaughs Remembered is my tribute to the man who was my first love (and my first heartbreak) at 18, at UCLA in 1963, and with whom I reconnected 52 years later at 70. We remained inseparable until the day he died, one year later. During that year, we recorded hours of conversation in which he recounted his adventures and reflected on his experiences -- the Civil Rights activities in Mississippi during Freedom Summer; the successes in Hollywood in the Sixties and Seventies; living "underground" on the streets of Florida in the Eighties; and the years at sea. He viewed the highs and the lows as different "experiences" but all part of a rich and meaningful life. Most of all, he loved recounting his seafaring adventures: whether encountering a Russian submarine in Scammon's Lagoon, breaking out of jail in Jamaica, or losing his boat to pirates in Honduras. This video is my homage to the man I love and who continues to inspire me to live life to the fullest.
Email Daniella@daniellasapriel.com for more information and to obtain link to video.
Where Has My Easy Rider Gone
The Grail in our story is the Captain America Bike which, like Excalibur, disappeared into the mists after filming ended. The Bike represents - as it always has - a talisman of freedom and eternal, ephemeral and unattainable perfection.
Paul D'Orleans - motorcycle historian, co-founder of the Motorcycle Arts Foundation, and a driving force since 2010 behind uncoveringthe mystery of The Bike's design and creation - waxes lyrical in "The Chopper: the Real Story": "It's the most famous motorcycle in the world, period . . . The Captain America chopper transcends its own story; . . .[its] an icon, a magical talisman of Freedom. . . . Such is the power of the machine's image . . . It is a powerful work of art, a coveted, elusive object, copied a thousand times all over the globe, but it cannot be truly captured, as it exists only in the realm of dreams. . . ." WHERE HAS MY EASY RIDER GONE is not a sequel or a prequel to the 1969 movie. Although our characters and plot are fictional, the character Cap was inspired by and is based on the late Cliff Vaughs, who designed and built the Captain America Bike and was associate producer during preproduction of the 1969 movie. Because the story and its characters draw heavily on Vaughs’ life and experiences, we include only a short summary here. A full Treatment with exposition of the plot and about a dozen pages of in depth character backstories is available and can be provided once the issue of Vaughs' Life Rights is resolved. Demian Scott Vaughs supports this project and is the liaison to the Vaughs' family to negotiate any necessary Life Rights.
Paul D'Orleans - motorcycle historian, co-founder of the Motorcycle Arts Foundation, and a driving force since 2010 behind uncoveringthe mystery of The Bike's design and creation - waxes lyrical in "The Chopper: the Real Story": "It's the most famous motorcycle in the world, period . . . The Captain America chopper transcends its own story; . . .[its] an icon, a magical talisman of Freedom. . . . Such is the power of the machine's image . . . It is a powerful work of art, a coveted, elusive object, copied a thousand times all over the globe, but it cannot be truly captured, as it exists only in the realm of dreams. . . ." WHERE HAS MY EASY RIDER GONE is not a sequel or a prequel to the 1969 movie. Although our characters and plot are fictional, the character Cap was inspired by and is based on the late Cliff Vaughs, who designed and built the Captain America Bike and was associate producer during preproduction of the 1969 movie. Because the story and its characters draw heavily on Vaughs’ life and experiences, we include only a short summary here. A full Treatment with exposition of the plot and about a dozen pages of in depth character backstories is available and can be provided once the issue of Vaughs' Life Rights is resolved. Demian Scott Vaughs supports this project and is the liaison to the Vaughs' family to negotiate any necessary Life Rights.
GENRE
Modern Superhero Modeled on
a Reimagined Captain America & Bucky
with Buddy Movie Vibesand a Whiff of Knight Errantry
GUIDING PRINCIPLE
"Art Imitates Life"
. . . Aristotle
GOAL
Create characters and a storyline that resonate today in the same visceral manner that EASY RIDER resonated with the youth of the Sixties.
PLOT SUMMARY
WHERE HAS MY EASY RIDER GONE creates two characters ("Cap" and "Turk" ) who embark on an epic journey - a Quest - to find the original "Captain America" bike that disappeared after the 1969 movie Easy Rider finished filming, or at least solve the mystery of the Bike's disappearance.
WHERE HAS MY EASY RIDER GONE is set in present day America. The country is at a crossroads, bitterly divided between those fighting to preserve a constitutional democracy with three co-equal branches and a shared dream of tolerance and equality for all who call America home, versus increasingly extreme elements who fear America's rapidly changing demographics threaten their traditional
hold on power.
Forces similar to those that swept Europe in the 1940s now sweep America, as a charismatic demagogic leader and his followers fight to restore him to power, even if it means toppling democracy, dehumanizing anyone who disagrees, and establishing an autocracy
by destroying constitutional and institutional checks and balances.
Americans fearful that democracy and American ideals are at risk inchoately long for a reimagined Captain America and Bucky, one that reflects the changing face of America while reaffirming its
unchanging ideals of freedom, equality and justice for all.
Our story blends past and present, historical facts and fictional guesses or fantasies to create two characters - "Captain" or "Cap"
(Dalton) and "Turk" (Perry) - who embark on a Quest to find the "remains" of the original Captain America bike or at least to solve
the mystery of its disappearance.The search for the mystical lost “Captain America Bike” becomes a Quest, with The Bike as Grail and our “questers” the Captain America and Bucky of today.
The Quest begins with a tip to Cap's newsroom that the man or men who stole The Bike after the filming of Easy Rider's climactic ending scene in Louisiana are coming to the end of their lives and want to unburden their conscience as to what they did as youths. The tip is anonymous and farfetched, but detailed enough to be intriguing . . .
Email Daniella@daniellasapriel.com for more information and to request copy of Treatment