Trying to escape his family and his American upbringing, Will Jr. looks for a new life in Cambodia. Through a spiritual community, he seeks explanation of the world around him. Finding instead only fractional and conflicting solutions, he questions the purpose of his time abroad and the meaning of newly formed relationships.

In New Jersey, Will Sr. and Linda are struggling with their son's departure. Will Sr. cannot grasp his son¹s rejection and ingratitude as his health condition worsens. Linda, while trying to understand her son¹s choice and comfort her husband, is forced into mediating the conflict between the two men.

The Distance Between the Apple and the Tree is a story of family and the distances that separate us.

In the last few years, I feel like I have started to know my own parents as people for the first time. No longer the imposing and stubborn grownups who so complicated my younger years, they now seem more human, more complex. As they age into a cute and quirky older couple, and as I age into my own adulthood, we have all had to reassess our relationships and our identities. This movie is a story about another family's struggle to sort through all of the misunderstandings, resentments, and conflicting memories, hoping to uncover the most important bond that can hold a family together against all odds.

As an American, I've found myself in a similar place regarding my relationship to my country. Born into a hippie, socialist family, I grew up prone to criticizing my country. It had always been easier to blame others for what was going wrong than to acknowledge a shared responsibility. Now, in a post 9-11 world in which American pride is rekindled at home and anti-American sentiment runs rampant abroad, we have all been forced to reexamine our own relationship with our country. Like a family, we must also sort through the misunderstandings, resentments, and conflicting memories. Like a family, we can only hope to find that which will hold us together.

Concerning this movie, I still don't know if 'family' is a metaphor for 'country,' or if 'country' is a metaphor for 'family.' But it was questions of identity, family, and country that started this project. It is easier to distance oneself from a family's faults than it is to confront one's own responsibilities. The true challenge we all face is to look deeper, to try harder, and to survive a search for our common roots.

                 Bajir Cannon