As political and cultural divisions continue to shape the national conversation, a new documentary is asking whether Americans can still find common ground — by doing something that has become increasingly rare: sitting down with people they disagree with and listening.

The Work in Progress, directed by Ian Cheney and produced by Elliot Kirschner, brings together Americans from different generations, backgrounds and political perspectives to discuss the country’s future. The film is screening Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Rosendale Theatre as part of its “Darn Good Docs” series.

The project grew out of an earlier film Cheney and Kirschner made with former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich about his final semester teaching at the University of California, Berkeley. Kirschner said Reich often emphasized that people learn the most when their ideas are challenged by someone who disagrees with them.

That insight helped inspire a documentary built around conversations rather than political arguments.

The filmmakers traveled to six states, speaking with nearly 100 people. Cheney said he was surprised by how hopeful the experience became.

“Time and again, people were not only willing to sit down and listen, it was as if it was something they really needed and had been missing in their lives,” Cheney said.

Kirschner said the conversations revealed how much more complicated people are than the political categories often used to define them.

“None of us are binary,” he said. “None of us are just defined by one thing or another in a sharp division.”

Instead, he said, bringing people together as individuals helped reveal connections that can get lost in the country’s polarized political environment.

“ We have not only a right, but a duty to shape where the country’s going. And it’s really not only just through voting, but it’s through dialogue, through learning, through engaging in our community,” Kirschner said.