Event

HOBO

Dir. John T. Davis, 1992
UK. 90min

Irish director John T. Davis follows Beargrease, a vietnam veteran and father, as he travels and philosophizes from Minneapolis to Seattle via freight train. HOBO is a powerful portrait of the American poor and working class, using the train line as a means to get from town to town, meeting the depressed and marginalized along the way in the soup kitchens, unemployment offices and jungles at the sides of the tracks. With scenes of hobos reading newspapers, listening to the radio news programs and slandering politicians, the documentary shows the hobo not as an out-of-touch outcast from society, but an engaged yet struggling worker trying to make ends meet with what is at their disposal; chancing the risk of arrest or even death for a free ride to the next town. HOBO addresses subjects of homelessness, class disparity, alcoholism, and even sex-workers rights through Beargreases conversations with his traveling partners and land-locked friends along his route.

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Catch out with Spectacle for the summer with these four documentaries spanning five decades all revolving around the mythical hobo and their prefered mode of transport, hopping freight trains. Filled with lush landscapes, and scenery that make the Hudson River Valley school of painters look like Thomas Kinkade, these films use train riding as a vehicle to tell unique stories of the hobo subculture, class disparity in the United States, and personal stories of those out there riding the rails.