Kris Bowers is a composer for films like Green Book. But years after getting acclaim for his earlier work, Peter Nicks’ new documentary Anthem captures Bowers and a music producer, Dahi. Together, they jam with musicians all over America. Bowers and Dahi meet local musicians in many parts of America. They temporarily leave their home to go to places like Detroit, the home of Motown. They then go to Nashville, a place where an increasingly diverse group of country musicians meet. Another stop is Tusla, a place where Indigenous people incpororate modern spins on their pre-contact rituals. After these jam sessions, Bowers and Dahi tell them about their ambitious project. One where they figure out what an American national anthem would sound like.

This new anthem, theoretically, reflects the country now that it’s constantly examining itself with new perspectives, even if those perspectives seem ‘unpatriotic’. Anthem shows both Bowers and Dahi as they explore America’s music history, one mile at a time. Someone at Nashville stops them to ask why they have a camera crew with them. Dahi tells the man a more general pitch of the dcomentary. He omits the fact that they’re trying to write a new national anthem. This scene is personally interesting because it feels like they Dahi would keep the reason a secret in Nashville. he may be open to revealing their project it in Detroit or Tusla. It speaks to America at large, a country still hesitant to look itself in the mirror.

Anthem shows these musicians and an America rising out of the old, and as it does that let’s go into a history lesson. The documentary covers some of this history while omitting some key points about the current anthem. For the first, it reminds its viewers of a piece of trivia that some of us might not know. Or one that we might forget and re-remember. That trivia, by the way, is that America’s current national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, uses a melody that was popular in British circles. The second piece of trivia is about the song’s third verse which some have construed as having an anti-Black message. It’s understandable that the film’s Black filmmaker and subjects didn’t want to bring that third verse up. But this choice feels like it’s sugar coating the film’s original thesis statement.

This group project culminates in Bowers and Dahi coming back home, flying in some of the musicians they meet to write the lyrics to their melody. Some of the conversations that come out as part of this process has the right amount of tension. These scenes, by the way, look like they’re writing a verse in a RupaAnd again, it’s understandable that not everyone can have a seat at the table or the studio, even if they did try to bring the many main voices in. But this effort still exposes the fact that it treats a few people in America as an afterthought. I write this specifically about the sparse Hispanic and Indigenous representation here in Anthem. Introducing a HIspanic composer and singer feels like it’s part of a bridge instead of having their own verses.

Anthem came out in Disney+ last June.