These are some of the films on nomadic rail culture we have come across and intend to have available in our library. Let us know if you are aware of others or have more info about some of these listings - the mini-reviews in italics have come from a number of sources and are, of course, subjective.
Catching Out 2002 Sarah George
Shot over several years, Catching Out follows several main rail-riding characters - Lee, Jessica, and the tramp couple Switch and Baby Girl (who lived at Black Butte in the early 1990s) - and explores their changing relationships to trains and nomadic travel. A bit too focused on formal interviews on living room couches if you are looking for lots of good train riding scenes, but still with some good insights. The film includes some classic scenes, including of Hobo Lee in his long lost tree house in the redwoods and in earlier television footage during a confrontation at hunt saboteur campaign action.
Compass in the Blood 1999 Bobb Hopkins and the National Hobo Association
Mainly shot at and around a small gathering in Marquette, Iowa, this "hobo documentary" features recreational train riders (or non-riders) pretending to be hobos. Afterwards if can safely be assumed that most will get in their RVs and minivans and head back home. More cheese than substance. Exceptions include a brief interview with Train Doc, some good musical footage, including of Spider John Koerner, and some decent train shots along the Mississippi River in Iowa.
Emperor of the North 1973 Robert Aldrich
A Hollywood classic starring Lee Marvin as A#1, a famous hobo, and Ernest Borgnine as "Shack" a cruel railroad bull. With lots of dramatic scenes along the way they battle each other from one end of the high line to the other. And of course the good guy wins.
The End of the Line Dana Mozer
A well-done but hard to find satirical look at the Britt Hobo Convention in the late 1980s by a then Portland-based film maker.
Free Ride 1997 David Murphy
An insider's look at the emerging punk/activist trainriding phenomona of the mid-1990s. Murphy follows the kids out to the Britt Hobo Convention, up to Minneapolis for some classic scavenging scenes with "Dumpy" and friends, out to an Earth First encampment in Oregon, and to an Active Resistance anarchist conference in Chicago. I don't know how well this film has stood the test of time, it feels a bit dated but still provides a good look at that time and place in train riding culture.
Fruitloop and Arwegian Rick Jeffery Shroyer
A hilarious animated short film featuring Iwegian Rick and Fruitloop by a North Carolina-based film student. Can be found on the Net.
The Great American Hobo 1994 Bob "Santa Fe Bo" Hopkins (director and producer)
A video produced for PBS by the National Hobo Association. More cheese than in all of Wisconsin.
Here Among the Sacrificed
An obscure film companion to the 1984 book by the same name written by Finn Wilcox with photographs by Steve R. Johnson. It documents the travels of some tramps along the West Coast in, I think, the late 1970s.
Hobo 1991 John T. Davis
Well done documentary by an Irish filmmaker. He follows "Beargrease" on a trip over the high line from Minneapolis to Seattle, stopping in many towns along the way.
The Infinite Border 2007 Juan Manuel Sepúlveda
This film by a Mexican documentary filmmaker, profiles a handful of the hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants who enter Mexico clandestinely each year en route to the promised land of the United States. Some are incarcerated and some are sent back, only to return undeterred. Some bear the brutal evidence of the dangers of riding the rails northward in the form of severed limbs.
An Injury to One 2002 Travis Wilkerson
A documentary about the labor history and devastation of Butte, Montana by the copper industry, focusing on the incident in 1917 when IWW organizer Frank Little was "slain by capitalist interests for organizing and inspiring his fellow men."
The Journey of Natty Gann 1985 Jeremy Kagan/Disney Films
A fictional depression-era tale of a teenage girl who is abandoned by her father in Chicago when he goes to look for work in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually she decides to ride freight trains west to find him, befriending a wild wolf in the process. Great train scenes, this movie is said to have inspired more than a few young women to hit the rails...
Long Gone 2003 Jack Cahill and David Eberhardt (co-producers)
Over the course of almost seven years Long Gone follows the intertwined lives of several tramps - Joshua Long Gone, Horizontal John, New York Slim, and Dog Man Tony - as they careen around the West encountering various up and downs in their lives. Over a briefer time span, the lives of several younger and less interesting riders are also portrayed. A compelling documentary, one of our favorites. With original soundtrack by Tom Waits and additional music by Charlie Musselwhite. Excellent cinematography by Greg Yolin and the co-producers. Available for purchase on ITunes.
Rail Kings 2005 Bobb "Santa Fe Bo" Hopkins (director and producer). Superchief Films. First released a few years earlier as "Derailed."
A fictional on-the-rails murder-mystery movie featuring a "spoiled trust fund baby" off to find the rail-riding killer of his parents. Despite production values and dialogue reminiscent of a 1970s B-movie porno, Rail Kings has become a cult classic. No matter where the "rail kings" catch out to, they always seem to end up in Dunsmuir... Short guest appearances by Ernest Borgnine and Roadhog USA.
Reading Canada Backwards 1995 Steve Topping
A short arty film, Topping took over 12,000 photos while riding a series of trains across Canada all the way from Vancouver through Winnipeg to Montreal on CP, and then on CN out to Halifax. The photos are presented rapid-fire style over the course of nine minutes.
Riding the Rails 1997 Michael Uys and Lexie Lovell
Originally broadcast as a PBS documentary, Riding the Rails is the story of the children the either ran away or were forced to leave home during the depression. In most movies the hobos riding the rails are shown as grown men and as bums. This movie debunks that myth and shows that most of the rail riders were teenage runaways. The story is told very effectively in a series of interviews with the survivors from this era and shows footage from old movies and newsreel. Most of survivors are now in their late 70s or 80s but were as young as 13 when they first ran away. These are very personal stories about children who had no hope of a better life at home and how they hopped boxcars trying to find something better. www.ridingtherails-themovie.com
Sin Nombre 2009 Cary Fukunaga
A well-done fictional portrayal of a family of Central American migrants traveling north through Mexico on the trains towards the US border. They encounter police, MS13 gang members and tragedy along the way. Very realistic photography on and around the trains.
Slack Action 2005 Shana Lawton
Train on the Brain 2000 Alison Murray
Alison Murray returns from Britain to her homeland of Canada, hooks up with some friends, and goes off on a cross-country rail trip through Canada and then the US. In the process she meets lots of riders and local wingnuts, enjoys the scenery, gets rained on and beat up by cops, takes some wrong turns, and finds her way to the Britt Hobo convention in Iowa before heading back to the West Coast. Some nice portrayals of the up and down rhythms of trainriding. As of 2008 available for sale on DVD.
The Tramp 1915 Charles Chaplin (director and writer) - Essanay Films, 20 minutes, black and white, 16 mm.
In this comedic film, Chaplin portrays a persnickety tramp who rescues a beautiful woman from robbers and then falls in love with her. Upon discovering that she loves someone else, he takes to the road. The cast includes Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Bud Jamison, Leo White, and Paddy McGuire.
Which Way Home 2009 Rebecca Cammisa
"Which Way Home" is a feature documentary film that follows unaccompanied child migrants, on their journey through Mexico, as they try to reach the United States.
Wedding Train
This film is so poor that the producers were apparently too embarrassed to put their names on it. Reportedly, they encouraged a lot of the violence they filmed by buying the kids whiskey and egging them on a totally unethical approach to filmmaking. Sickening shots of violence towards animals and women. The one redeeming feature is the opening action scene when the kids and film crew are riding on a piggyback train getting pursued by both two cop cars and a helicopter and they still get off the train and make a run for it! Can be seen on You-Tube.
Who is Bozo Texino? 2005 Bill Daniel
This film is mainly about railworker and hobo boxcar graffiti artists. In the course of his explorations, Photo Bill plunges into the train riding world, visiting hobo/tramp gatherings and camps, talking to workers, and eventually tracking down famous boxcar taggers such as Palm Tree Herby, the Rambler and, finally, the elusive Bozo Texino. Great cinematography with lots of atmospheric shots of railroading and riding in the western US. Good narration and soundtrack too. Highly recommended. The DVD is available from several sources, including www.billdaniel.net.
Wild Boys of the Road 1933 William Wellman
This is a black-and-white Hollywood depression-era film about a group of teenagers (despite the film title, boys "and girls") forced onto the rails in the midst of the Great Depression. It has been described as the "Reefer Madness" of trainriding - apparently, a goal of the film was to dissuade teenagers from leaving home to ride the rails by highlighting the potential dangers and difficulties. But in reality its dramatic traveling scenes seems to have had the opposite effect, inspiring even more kids to head out on the road.
The Wobblies 1979 Stewart Bird & Deborah Shaffer - The Center for Educational Production with Support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 90 Minutes.
Fascinating documentary about the early years of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical industrial union which by the late 'teens was dominated by hobo labor. The film uses lots of first hand testimony of old time "Wobblies", recounting their youthful exploits as "harvest stiffs", "timber beasts", and "apple knockers", riding freight trains from job to job, dealing with "high jacks", railroad bulls, and hostile train crews. It becomes readily apparent that the IWW had a profound effect upon a generation of hoboes nearly a century ago now, and that this legacy can still be felt today.
Mexican Documentaries on immigrants on the rails
To our knowledge, there are now four Mexican-made documentaries on immigrants (mostly Central Americans) riding trains in Mexico: La Bestia, El Tren De La Muerte, De Nadie, and Los Invisibles. We are looking for copies of all of these films for our library - please let us know if you can send us a copy of any of these.