Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series tonight, Tuesday, May 3: IN TRANSIT
Al Maysles, Lynn True, David Usui, Nelson Walker, and Ben Wu’s observational portrait of cross-country train travel debuted at Tribeca last year. Screenings followed at IDFA, Vancouver, Full Frame, Dokufest Kosovo, Camden, DMZ Docs, Docs DF, Docslisboa, RIDM, AFI Docs, Hamptons, Denver, and DocAviv, among others.
This immersive film follows the path of the Empire Builder, the most active long-distance train route in the US, from Chicago to Seattle, as it offers brief but often surprisingly poignant scenes with various passengers and other riders. As the filmmakers present these fleeting profiles – an abused woman reflects on the children she gave up for adoption, an oil field worker heads to a reunion with his girlfriend, a single mother of four kids seeks a relationship with her father, a conductor speaks of his job fulfilling long-held dreams – a multifaceted, intimate portrait of modern America emerges, one that makes for a fitting last project by the incomparable Albert Maysles.
what (not) to doc 