Riding the Rails 27 years old

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.

Credits

Riding the Rails Cast

Name Character
Richard Thomas He was 45, now 72 years old as Narrator

Riding the Rails Crew

Name Department
Lexy Lovell as Director. Directing
Michael Uys as Director. Directing
Sam Henriques as Director of Photography. Camera
Howard Sharp as Editor. Editing
Riding the Rails poster
Riding the Rails (27 years)

  • Release day: Wednesday, January 01, 1997
  • Runtime: 72 minutes