May 11, 2007
Hobo Film at Hobo Bar
The Royale, a saloon known to attract a rotating cast of colorfully-named grifters and wandering train-hoppers is home to an event that clearly fits in with its itinerant, beareded clientele. "Who is Bozo Texino?" by Bill Daniel plays the patio of the venue on Wednesday, May 16.
Here's some info from the film's site:
Who is Bozo Texino?
by Bill Daniel
56 min. black and white, experimental/documentary
Who is Bozo Texino? chronicles the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti-- a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, "Bozo Texino"-- a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Daniel's gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it's underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti, and includes interviews with legendary boxcar artists, Coaltrain, Herby, Colossus of Roads, and The Rambler. Shooting over a 16-year period, Daniel rode freights across the West carrying a Super-8 sound camera and a 16mm Bolex. During his quest he discovered the roots of a folkloric tradition that has gone mostly unnoticed for a century. Taking inspiration from Beat artists Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac, the film functions as both a sub-cultural documentary and a stylized fable on wanderlust and outsider identity.