In Search of the Hobo Railroad Artist

Last night Monday night at the Zootown Arts Community Center, Debby Florence brought in an amazing filmaker,Bill Daniel, who screened his short film that was 16 years in the making.  We were lucky to have him, as his biodiesel van had broken down at the Orange Street exit, and he had to hoof it over to the ZACC for the screening.

From the website:

Who is Bozo Texino? chronicles the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti– a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino”– a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years.  Daniel’s gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it’s underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti, and includes interviews with legendary boxcar artists, Coaltrain, Herby, Colossus of Roads, and The Rambler.  Shooting over a 16-year period, Daniel rode freights across the West carrying a Super-8 sound camera and a 16mm Bolex. During his quest he discovered the roots of a folkloric tradition that has gone mostly unnoticed for a century. Taking inspiration from Beat artists Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac, the film functions as both a sub-cultural documentary and a stylized fable on wanderlust and outsider identity.