Riding the Rails (1997)
• January 1st, 1997 • 1h 12min
Documentary
Overview
Riding the Rails offers a visionary perspective on the presumed romanticism of the road and cautionary legacy of the Great Depression. 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, where the surging impact of sound and movement resuscitates memories of a shattered adolescence and devastating rite of passage.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
These were the reasons
Released on: 2011-05-01
Documentary, History
This film takes us into the harsh realm of BC's early coal mines, canneries, and lumber camps; where...
Poland 1939: When German Soldiers Became War Criminals
Released on: 2019-08-31
Documentary, Animation, History
September 1st, 1939. Nazi Germany invades Poland. The campaign is fast, cruel and ruthless. In these...
Nanking
Released on: 2007-02-10
Documentary, Drama, History
The story of the rape of Nanking, one of the most tragic events in history. In 1937, the invading Ja...
Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home
Released on: 2006-07-12
Music, Documentary
Every American who has listened to the radio knows Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." The music of ...
After Mein Kampf?
Released on: 1961-08-01
Documentary, History, War
By combining actual footage with reenactments, this film offers both a documentary and fictional acc...
Salty Dog Blues
Released on: 2012-01-01
Documentary
The film looks at men and women of color in the U.S. Merchant Marine from 1938-1975. Through chronic...
Wake of '38
Released on: 1978-09-21
Documentary
Personal experiences of Northwest Ohio residents during the January 1978 blizzard that disrupted dai...
FDR: A Presidency Revealed
Released on: 2005-04-17
Documentary
For twelve years he stood as America's 32nd President, a man who overcame the ravages of polio to pu...
Moje Praha
Released on: 2002-11-01
Documentary
Otakar Vávra walks through Prague in front of the camera and with the camera, and remembers those wh...
Land Without Bread
Released on: 1933-12-01
Documentary
An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extrem...
Lise Meitner: The Mother of the Atom Bomb
Released on: 2013-02-02
Documentary, History
To historians, physicist Lise Meitner deserves to be placed on a par with Einstein, Heisenberg and O...
Early One Morning
Released on: 1937-12-13
Documentary
A Swedish short film taking us inside Värmdö church for the Christmas holiday.
Triumph of the Will
Released on: 1935-03-28
Documentary
A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.
The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story
Released on: 1999-10-08
Documentary
There's not a person in the world who wouldn't recognize Mickey Mouse. But until now, not many knew ...
How we built the Moscow metro
Released on: 2014-03-18
Documentary
In the 1930’s, the workers of the underground, headed by brigades of writers, are in charge to write...
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
Released on: 2017-06-14
Documentary, History
The story of Italian cinema under Fascism, a sophisticated film industry built around the founding o...
The Money Masters
Released on: 1996-01-01
History, Documentary
A documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the...
The Great Depression: The Road to Rockbottom
Released on:
Documentary
As the Great Depression progressed economic collapse took its toll on rural America. Crops went unso...