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Riding the Rails

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Original title: Riding the Rails
Year: 1997
Running time: 72 min.
Country: United States
Director: Lexy Lovell, Michael Uys
Screenwriter: Lexy Lovell, Michael Uys
Cast: Documentary
Music: Jay Sherman-Godfrey
Cinematography: Sam Henriques
Producer: Out of the Blue Productions, The American History Project
Genre: Documentary | The Great Depression. Historical Documentaries
Synopsis: Riding the Rails offers a visionary perspective on the presumed romanticism of the road and cautionary legacy of the Great Depression. From 'middle class gentility to scrabble-ass poor,' the undiscriminating Great Depression forced 4,000,000 Americans away from their homes and onto the tracks in search of food and lodging. Of this number, a disturbing 250,000 of the transients were children. The filmmakers relay the experiences and painful recollections of these now-elderly survivors of the rails. Forced to travel more by economic necessity than the spirit of adventure, the film's subjects dispel romantic myths of a hobo existence and its corresponding veneer of freedom. Riding the Rails recounts the hoboes' trade secrets for survival and accounts of dank miseries, loneliness, imprisonment, death, and dispossession. Sixty years later, the filmmakers transport their subjects back to the tracks...

Awards: 1997: Chicago International Film Festival: Silver Hugo

1997: Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Documentary

1997: Directors Guild of America (DGA): Best Director / Documentary

1997: Sundance Film Festival: nominated to Grand Jury Prize - Documentary U.S..

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User history

Riding the Rails

1997

Lexy Lovell, Michael Uys