Riding the Rails

Riding the Rails (1997)

January 1st, 19971h 12min

Documentary
57%

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

The New Deal: The Man Who Changed America

The New Deal: The Man Who Changed America


Released on: 2021-08-10
Documentary, History, TV Movie

Elected in November 1932, as the economic crisis ravaged the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevel...

Blood Money: Inside the Nazi Economy

Blood Money: Inside the Nazi Economy


Released on: 2021-02-02
History, War, Documentary, TV Movie

How did Nazi Germany, from limited natural resources, mass unemployment, little money and a damaged ...

Bugatti: A Thirst for Speed

Bugatti: A Thirst for Speed


Released on: 2018-03-11
Documentary, History, TV Movie

The story of the Bugattis of Milan and Molsheim, the eccentric family behind the brand: Carlo, the p...

The Money Masters

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...

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year


Released on: 2009-07-02
Documentary, TV Movie

This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and in...

La ruta de don Quijote

La ruta de don Quijote


Released on: 1934-01-01
Documentary

A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the m...

Melbourne Today

Melbourne Today


Released on: 1931-01-01
Documentary

The first documentary of Frank Thring’s Cities of the Empire series, this episode is about Melbourne...

Who are we? Psychoanalysis of Ukrainians

Who are we? Psychoanalysis of Ukrainians


Released on: 2021-12-10
Documentary

World's Greatest Logging Site

World's Greatest Logging Site


Released on: 1938-02-01
Documentary

A documentary short on logging during winter season.

Dora Maar in Spite of Picasso

Dora Maar in Spite of Picasso


Released on: 2014-11-06
Documentary

Dora Maar, a world-class photographer who began her artistic career in the French Surrealist scene o...

The Great American Hobo

The Great American Hobo


Released on: 1980-07-04
Documentary

The Great American Hobo produced in 1980 features the music of Supertramp's "Take the Long Way Home"...

Land Without Bread

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...

The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults

The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults


Released on: 1986-04-21
Documentary, History, Crime, Mystery

The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults is a two-hour live American television special that was broadcast ...

The Imperial Lullaby

The Imperial Lullaby


Released on: 2020-03-21
Documentary, History

The armies of Fascist Italy conquered Addis Ababa, capital of Abyssinia, in May 1936, thus culminati...

Hitler's Forgotten Victims

Hitler's Forgotten Victims


Released on: 1997-10-02
Documentary, TV Movie, History, War

The story of black and mixed race people in Nazi Germany who were sterilised, experimented upon, tor...

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story


Released on: 2018-06-06
Documentary

The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy La...

Dix Jours dans la guerre d'Espagne

Dix Jours dans la guerre d'Espagne


Released on: 2016-02-14
Documentary, History, TV Movie