The Dream Share Project documentary follows two recent college grads, Chip Hiden and Alexis Irvin, as they took a road trip across America, interviewing people in various professions who have followed their dreams. The documentary was shown in Reeves Theater on April 6 with a workshop held afterward.
“We want to inspire people; help them to find what their dreams are,” Irvin said. “When you find your passion, you’re happier, more productive and it makes the world a better place.”
Hiden and Irvin graduated college in 2009. “We both found office jobs that we weren’t passionate about, but that’s what we thought you were supposed to do, get a job, make money and retire. We eventually found that that’s just not what our passion is. We decided to travel across the country and find people with dream jobs and ask them how they found their passions,” Hiden said.
Hiden and Irvin interviewed people of many different professions for the Dream Share Project, from a youth coach to an Olympic skier to an astronaut.
The couple said they enjoyed the serendipitous encounters they made on their road trip. In one specific incident, the two were sitting in a café and overheard someone talking about an award he had won. After some online investigating, they realized it was the comedian Alex Reymundo. They were hesitant to go ask him for an interview, but he came over to them and asked to borrow a pen. They gave him one of their pens with the “Dream Share” logo on, he asked about the project and it lead to an interview.
One of the biggest challenges the couple faced was their budget. “We stayed at camp grounds to save money; some nights we slept in the car,” Hiden said. “We had to find out how much gas would cost; we planned everything out, all the costs and picked a date to start the road trip.”
“It [the making of the documentary] was really exciting, but at the same time we were kind of doubting that it could ever be a thing,” said Hiden.
Now, Hiden and Irvin tour colleges where they show their documentary and hold workshops. Students will sometimes come up to them after the workshop and tell them that The Dream Share Project helped them to find their life goal.
Find out more about The Dream Share Project, as well as watch the interviews used in the documentary, at thedreamshareproject.com.