If you've wandered into The Narrows at Zion National Park, you know how it catches your breath and, while you're gazing up at the sandstone canyon walls, leaves you in awe of nature. Tom Huang, an independent filmmaker from Los Angeles, felt that when he entered The Narrows, and immediately knew what his next project would be.

"I’m looking up at these towering canyon walls and I just thought, 'You know what, I want to make a film where people see this on the screen, point to it and say, I want to go there.' So I just started writing the script when I got home. I thought to myself, why do I want people to say that and experience this?" Huang told me as we discussed his new film, Find Me. "And I think that part of it is, whenever I go to these places and see these things in person, it just really puts the world into perspective and helps me feel like the world is really a bigger place and these problems that happen in life, if you put them in perspective, you can overcome them and not feel like it has to completely take over your life.”

Too often we do feel as if life is overwhelming. Our relationships, jobs, commitments, and 21st century technology all can conspire at times to box us in. With his film, which arrived May 31, Huang tries to put all this in perspective and show us a way out of that box.

The story outline is simple. It revolves around two coworkers, one, a young woman who spends every possible opportunity traveling to national parks, and a middle-age Chinese-American accountant who is overwhelmed by work, his divorce, and his aging parents. Amelia constantly tries to get Joe to head to a national park to experience the outdoors, and he constantly comes up with reasons why he couldn't possible travel. She finally coaxes him into the parks by going on vacation and teasing him with a letter sent to his office that asks him to find her.

The ensuing story not only leads Joe to Zion, Death Valley, and Yosemite, but lets us watch the evolution of Joe from a desk-bound number cruncher to one comfortable exploring nature and realizing there is more to life than work. Along the way, the complications of relationships, family, and 'just life' crop up and are handled, and the outdoors is shown to be amazingly digestible. The film starts sluggishly, and some sections seem a bit contrived, but the themes conveyed are relevant today.

“I wanted to show people that it can be very easy to go to a national park and just go see something amazing," Huang said during our converation. "You don’t have to ride a mountain bike in the middle of the desert and fall into a canyon and cut your arm off with a pen, climb El Capitan with no ropes. You just need to drive there and just park and get out and you’ll see some amazing things.

“There’s always some sort of mental or physical obstacle that (people) think is there, and I think that for some cultures and some socio-economic areas, it’s just not on their agenda," he continued. "They think they have to buy a bunch of gear, or it’s a big deal to get out there. I hope to show people that it’s easier than they think.”

Cultural diversity in the park system also gets treatment in Find Me. Joe, of course, is Chinese-American, and there also are African-Americans and Latinos in the cast. The topic of diversity, or lack thereof, in the National Park System has long been discussed. And Hollywood hasn't always worried much about diversity in general in its productions.

"The films that I make, I do make it a point to show a part of America that I see, which is a very diverse America," explained Huang. "I live in Los Angeles. Hollywood has its issues sometimes, many times, of showing America as being more than just a white America. Just a little bit of my goal in making my films is to make as diverse a cast as possible to show that there are just Americans out there who just happen to be Chinese or happen to be Latino or whatever.

"In this case, too, with national parks, I do touch a little bit about how minorities in America feel about national parks," he added. "One of the characters, who happens to be African-American in the film, I did have her talk about how she’s an African-American who works in an area near Death Valley, and she notices that she sees more foreigners than Americans, especially Americans from her 'neighborhood,' and she just feels bummed that more people from her neighborhood can’t see Death Valley and experience it, because its affected her and helped her so much and inspired her so much."

How can the hurdles to the park system's relative lack of diversity be overcome? Often those issues revolve around the cost of getting out into nature, as well as upbringing, and whether one feels comfortable in the woods. Huang has some ideas that could help overcome some of those issues.

"There are some great programs starting up. One is Gear Forward. It’s this project, they want to get inner city kids involved and get them equipment so it’s not that much of an issue," he said. "And then there are places like REI starting to rent out equipment. They have this really cheap, used equipment. You can get a camping package for $20 or something. They’ll give you a used tent and sleeping bags you can rent out.

“Hopefully things like that will help get people out. I think to reach out to those groups, it’s a matter of find a way to get people there. And once they get there, they’ll see how great it is.”

In Find Me, Joe Lee finds himself in Death Valley in his pursuit of an office coworker.

That's a message the filmmaker would like to get across to all cultures. Visiting a national park can help you break out of life's ruts, he believes.

"I think you just need to do it. You just need to break the chain of whatever your time commitment is, because that will burn you out and get you down and I think really emotionally damage you in addition to everything else in life," Huang said. "And if you just take the time to go out and see it and disconnect yourself from all these other obligations, even for a weekend or a day, I think it does some really great things for your psyche."

Traveler footnote: Find Me can be found on Amazon.com and is coming to Google Play, Amazon Prime, and iTunes (and its ensuing iterations). Listen to more of my interview with Tom Huang on National Parks Traveler Episode 17.