Route 66 Poster

An epic road film chronicling the history and closure in 1981 of the iconic highway that, mythologised in music, film and literature, spanned 2,500 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, traversed eight states and cut through the heart of Middle America. 'So many images and places which were important to me and my generation came from America, and I wanted to make a film comparing those images with reality,' says Davis. The film features an anonymous sojourner driving a cherry red Chevy Impala ragtop, who travels the highway west. Through his eyes and through Davis's camera lens we encounter the underbelly of the US and the shattering of the American Dream. That Route 66 was made in 1984, when in Davis' words, 'Just like Route 66, America was grinding and cracking at the seams', gives the film a strikingly renewed resonance in the current political climate.