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In an industry undergoing great changes, due primarily to rising gas prices and increased Federal regulation, this film is an important record of a lifestyle that many see as close to extinction, as corporate trucking firms largely replace the iconic independant driver. BIG RIG doesn’t preach, nor does it present a point of view other than those of the people being interviewed. It does, however, paint a wonderful portrait of a way of life that may soon be coming to an end.

Q: What inspired you to make this film?

A: I love road films. I love traveling. And I’ve always been fascinated with trucks and trucking culture. It started with a simple fascination with classic 70s trucking tunes. It ended with the belief that truck drivers are possibly the hardest working and most disrespected group of workers in our country today.

Q: How and why did you choose the people you did to profile?

A: The whole idea was to let the film unfold naturally. We didn’t contact or pre-interview any of the drivers. Instead we went to truck stops all around the country and hitched rides with whichever drivers seemed most interesting or had to the most to say on the spot.

Q: How many miles did you ride while making BIG RIG?

A: In four two-week trips during different seasons, and in four different regions of the country, we traveled about 25,000 miles through 45 states, stopping at about 115 truck stops, and filming about 60 truckers.

Q: Did you ever feel scared or uncomfortable with any of the people you rode with?

A: No. Once I’d been accepted as a passenger, I felt comfortable. Where I felt threatened or uncomfortable was in the truck stop parking lots themselves. There, cameras weren’t allowed, I wasn’t allowed, and I appeared as nothing more than a sex solicitor or drug dealer. I was threatened many times, and my producer and I were run out of dozens of truck stops by truck stop management. Once in the safety of a big rig vehicle with a subject I was fascinated by, I felt at home.

Q: Have you ever worked as a truck driver?

A: No.

Q: Did anyone refuse to let you ride with them?

A: Sure, lots of people. I was denied interviews by maybe about 9 out of every 10 truckers I asked. Some were in too big a hurry to even talk to me. Some might have had something to hide. Some just didn’t give a damn. Some were suspicious of me (can you imagine anything less trustworthy than a guy from LA with a camera?).

Q: Did anyone you rode with get pulled over or have legal problems while you were with them?

A: No. But then again, anyone who was facing legal problems wouldn’t be likely to want me to spend lots of time with them in the first place.

Q: There’s some concern now that truckers pose a danger to public safety when they drive too far for too long at a stretch. Why didn’t you address this important issue?

A: Actually, I did everything I could to NOT make this into a traditional advocacy or informational film about all of the complicated political and logistical issues facing truckers today. There is a brief interview with a driver who breaks down the log book, and talks about how the government rules don’t actually solve the problem of tired drivers on the road, and there are many references to the issues, but the film is about people, not policies. I hope the film will lead viewers to have these discussions and get more info.

Q: Why do you think there is such a mystique surrounding truckers?

A: Before transcontinental travel was so commonplace, truckers were seen as wise sages of the American highway. There was always a seedy side, but they were also seen as heroes who you could rely on if your car broke down or you needed help out on the vast highways. Then, a spate of trucker movies, like CONVOY and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and others, glorified the renegade chrome “hookers n fun” stereotype. Today the mystique is gone (except for the super-chrome-show type truckers, but that’s just for show). It seems the general current public perception is that there are too many trucks, they’re all dangerous, they’re bad, uneducated people who don’t get enough sleep and are addicted to meth. Talk to any professional driver hauling 80,000 pounds who has driven 100,000 miles this year, or who has driven a million miles in the last decade, and a more realistic picture emerges.

Q: In your opinion, are truckers truly modern day cowboys, or is this merely a romantic ideal perpetuated by the truckers themselves?

A: I think they’re cowboys more than ever in the same way that cowboys had that image of performing a thankless, lonely job that just so happens to keep our nation running. In a more positive light, there are things about trucking that are incredibly appealing, just as there were about being a cowboy. The (occasional) open road, the gorgeous sunsets and wide open vistas, and the feeling, despite all the regulations, that you are still in charge of your own destiny, unlike in a typical 9-to-5 job. These people are all fiercely independent, just like cowboys.

Q: What is the educational level of the average trucker?

A: There really are all types out there--PhDs, too. But the majority of them are probably not college-educated, because many of them got into it at a young age and through family connections. So many truckers I talked to had fathers, brothers, grandfathers who were also drivers. I’ve also been told some 40% of all truck drivers are veterans.

Q: How has the trucking industry changed since you made this documentary, if at all?

A: That’s interesting, because my producer and I did a short test shoot back in 2003, and then, after we got funding, we began production in earnest in 2005. Even in those two years, we noticed a fairly dramatic change in the attitude out on the highway. The crunch of high fuel prices, the ever-escalating demand for more trucks (i.e., U.S. consumption), increasing regulation, and a general feeling of disrespect had noticeably changed the conversations we were having.

Q: Is trucking a growing or a shrinking industry?

A: Unfortunately it’s growing, but as many of the independent truckers in BIG RIG say, it’s becoming more and more corporate, more about the dollar, and less about the lifestyle. One thing I wish my film could have portrayed more was the influx of less trained, underpaid, and unprofessional new young truck drivers who are being hired to feed consumption demands at the expense of better highway safety and the respect that truckers once knew.

Q: What was your intention with this film? Was it to educate people about the reality of a truck driver’s life, or was it merely a love letter to truckers? Do you feel that it succeeds in that respect?

A: Neither. I had no intention of glorifying truckers, nor as I said earlier, for this to be a traditional educational film. My goal was not to make a film about the issues, but to make a film about the people and their lives. I hoped that getting to know a handful of truckers and hearing their personal stories would allow the issues to be debated outside the realm of the film.

Q: Few of your profiles tell a traditional “beginning-middle-end” story. Rather, they’re mostly conversations rather than slice-of-life dramas. Is this what you were shooting for?

A: Even more than my other films, BIG RIG has an untraditional structure. I wanted it to feel just like a roadtrip. You meet a driver, you get a ride with them, you talk with them, learn about their lives, get dropped off, they drive off into the sunset. That night you meeet another driver, and so forth.  Within those stories, each segment has its own intro, middle and end.

Q: What do you want people to take away from this film?

A: It’s simple: a renewed respect for truck drivers, an appreciation for life on the road, and, because we are living in such cynical times, and this nation seems to be so teetering on the edge of crisis, a reminder of the beauty and diversity of the country-- what we actually do have, and can be proud of.

Q: What’s your next project?

A: I’m in development on a few projects, but I just finished SURFWISE, which is about Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, a Stanford-trained doctor, and his wife who decided to drop out of a traditional lifestyle and raise their 9 children in a camper, following a strict diet and surfing every day. 

Big Rig

USA, 2007, 95 min, VIDEO

DIR: Doug Pray
SCR: Doug Pray, Brad Blondheim
PROD: Brad Blondheim
EXEC PROD: Kirt Eftekhar, Randy Wooten
DP: Doug Pray
MUS: Buck 65

Sleek steel monsters roll through the night on a cross-country odyssey that keeps the wheels of the American machine turning. Meet the working-class heroes who deliver your food and all the goods you can’t live without.

Doug Pray (SCRATCH, HYPE!, SURFWISE), travels 21,000 miles—spanning 45 states and dozens of truck stops —riding with truck drivers and interviewing a community that faces mounting challenges including rising fuel costs, an unsympathetic public and government interference. With hauls becoming less and less profitable, the truckers soldier on, knowing the importance of their role in the American economy and bolstered by a quiet pride. As we look inward as a country to address the challenges our excessive consumption has created, BIG RIG is especially relevant.

Featuring a soundtrack by Buck 65, BIG RIG’s gorgeous American vistas and a unique cast of trucking characters, take you along on a much-cherished road trip that will make you think twice the next time you speed past an 18-wheeler…roger that good buddy.

Screening Times:

Monday, November 5th 7:00pm
ArcLight Theatre 13

Tuesday, November 6th 3:00pm
ArcLight Theatre 10

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