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
Hitler's Evil Science
Released on: 2019-05-25
Documentary, History, TV Movie
In 1935, German scientists dug for bones; in 1943, they murdered to get them. How the German scienti...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Words for an End of the World
Released on: 2020-11-13
Documentary, History
Spain, April 14, 1931. The Second Republic is born. From the beginning, the writer Miguel de Unamuno...
The Massie Affair
Released on: 2005-04-18
Documentary
In the waning days of summer 1931, Honolulu's tropical tranquility was shattered when a young Navy w...
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...
Hitler's Games, Berlin 1936
Released on: 2016-08-23
Documentary, History, TV Movie
Summer 1936 - The Berlin Olympics, organized by the Nazi regime on the eve of World War II, acted as...
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...
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...
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 ...
Hitler: A Career
Released on: 1977-07-08
Documentary, History
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the T...
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...
Le Baron et l'Empereur : Japon, la voie de la guerre
Released on: 2023-10-29
Documentary, History, TV Movie
I Betrayed Hitler
Released on: 2016-03-27
History, Documentary, War, TV Movie
During the worst days of World War II, the British government asks the mathematician Alan Turing to ...
Swastika
Released on: 1974-01-17
Documentary, History, War
Comprised of video shot during the Nazi regime, including propaganda, newsreels, broadcasts and even...
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...