LONG GONE

(2003) Directors: Jack Cahill, David Eberhardt

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SUMMARY:

David Eberhardt and Jack Cahill spent seven years riding the rails, asking for spare change and swapping stories around campfires with train hoppers. Their labors are repaid with a mesmerizing documentary full of touching characters and beautiful landscapes.

Dog Man Tony is known for his unwavering honesty and fierce temper. New York Slim speaks in great parables. Joshua Long Gone and Horizontal John are a gray-bearded Huck and Tom. As these real-life characters and many others make their way to nowhere in particular, breathtaking cinematography (which earned top honors at the 2003 Slamdance Film Festival) captures a perspective of the United States -- spectacular sunsets over rocky peaks, vibrant green plains, desolate cityscapes -- that could only be seen from a rail car and sets it to haunting original songs by Tom Waits.

The promise of freedom is as romantic as a Beat Generation travelogue, but real life for the train hoppers is far from ideal. They have run-ins with family members and police; they pick food from trash cans; and way too may are alcoholics and addicts. Yet they know they've been discarded by mainstream society, which makes their bond to one another that much stronger. Many are also former military men, and that experience is born out in the stories, rituals, and honor among them as their paths cross beside the tracks.

Long Gone poignantly captures a marginalized homeless group for which misconceptions have far too often prevailed and shows that the yearning for community doesn't change much from person to person, even if the definition of community does. -Sean Fowler for the Tribeca Film Festival

VIDEO:

A scene from LONG GONE



REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, CREDITS:

• Film Threat magazine review
• The Independent Film & Video Monthly November 2003

NOTES:

NPR audio interview with directors Jack Cahill and David Eberhardt