I’ve been meaning to post about this film for some time now. It’s a gorgeous and effecting black & white 16mm ‘experimental’ documentary by Bill Daniel about hobos and train artists.
I got to thinking about it today because my pal Hudson reblogged a link to this NY Times article about a similar (albeit more modern) subject.
Cool fanboy aside: I was given my copy of this film by Bill’s brother and frequent Richard Linklater collaborator Lee Daniel when we met at Sundance ‘07.
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.
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