Search Museum of the Moving Image

In Transit

Jul 8 — Jul 9, 2017

Dirs. Albert Maysles, Lynn True, David Usui, Nelson Walker III, Benjamin Wu. 2015, 76 mins. Digital projection. In Transit brings viewers aboard the Empire Builder, America’s busiest long-distance train route. Riding on the train as it hurtles back and forth between Chicago and Seattle/Portland, Maysles and Co. move between interconnected vignettes, overheard conversations, and sudden moments of transcendence. Fulfilling Albert Maysles’s career-long dream of capturing the profound, poignantly fleeting culture of rail life, the legendary director’s final film serves as a loving portrait of America, travel, and the varieties of human connection.

“[B]eautifully assembled and touching, and an apt memorial for Mr. Maysles”—The New York Times

“Maysles and his collaborators capture ‘the rhythm of the tracks’ in their film. It is a machine that generates empathy.”—RogerEbert.com