Route One /USA
(Video) 

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1989.

"Restored 2019" -- DVD case

Special features: Video on the making of the film by Paul McIsaac.

Written and directed by Robert Kramer.

Music composed & performed by Pierre Favre, Michel Petrucciani, Barre Phillips, John surman, Floris Nico Bunink ; camera, Robert Kramer ; film editors, Robert Kramer, Guy Lecorne, Pierre Choukroun, Claire Laville, Keja Kramer.

Featuring Paul McIsaac, Pat Robertson, Jesse Jackson, Paul McIsaac, Jillian K. Barber, Jack Flaherty

In 1988, after years living abroad, renegade filmmaker Robert Kramer returns. "Back," he emphasizes. Not "home." To try to understand the country as it is, he decides to travel the entire length of Route 1, from the Canadian border to Key West, filming all the way. His companion on the trip is Doc--ostensibly Kramer's friend, a brooding physician back after a harrowing decade working in Africa. But in fact, he's a fictional character played by actor Paul McIsaac, a compassionate man who readily engages those he meets, from business owners, to factory workers and to army recruits. For a road movie, it features few shots of the open road itself. Instead, we are treated to a series of stops along the way--an Indian reserve in Maine, Walden Pond, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, a Georgia diner, Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter, and evangelical churches that preach the "truth" about the anti-apartheid movement and the dangers of Disney. There are plenty of characters along the way too, and appearances by televangelist Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson, as they campaign for president. It's not just the people who make the film though. Kramer has an extraordinary eye for people, patterns, and industrial processes (you'll never look at Monopoly or tinned sardines the same way again), and his visuals shine through in this beautifully restored edition.Though shot decades ago, it feels remarkably contemporary in its portrayal of many of the racial, social, and economic challenges America continues to face. -- http://icarusfilms.com/if-route

DVD; stereo.

Closed-captioned.