La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus (2012)
La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus (2012) In the vastness of the American material abundance there is always the nagging but too rarely addressed question of what happens to the things we toss aside and replace with the newer and the brighter. This film doesn’t concern our garbage, per se, but how others recycle what we put out of our minds. This documentary was built around what much of us would look upon as a mere anecdote, not even worthy of a three-minute news feature on TV – America’s yellow school busses, one of the most iconic vehicles of our landscape, generally have a prescribed service life of 150,000 miles or so. After they are taken out of service, as they are often still in excellent condition and are sold at auction. The buyers are frequently Latin American, and they drive them south, sometimes for weeks. This film focuses on those that make it to Guatemala, where, as elsewhere, they are put into service in ad hoc public transportation “systems.” ...