Amy has this old boyfriend, David, who has spent the last decade riding the rails and sleeping under bridges with hobos and tramps. He travels with a MiniDV camera and has shot 200 hours of footage of tramps in their natural habitat. He has spent enough time with them that he’s gained their trust and they’ve come to not even notice the camera, and are completely comfortable around him. The footage he has is amazing. He’s now in the process of editing this footage into a documentary called “Long Gone,” and has 15 indie film companies interested in the project. Tom Waits has given them the rights to use a bunch of unpublished train-related songs. Fantastic project. David passed through town yesterday and spent the day and night with us. Heard so many great stories… such a rich subject to work on. And so few film makers would have the kind of dedication and willingness to completely live that life that David has had. Awesome.
Went with David and Amy yesterday to SF MOMA, came home and ate pad thai and watched some of his rough cuts.