•US film director Damon Ristau presents documentary on the VW Bus
Hanover, March 29, 2012. Joint-smoking hippies at Woodstock, surfers on remote beaches and a country musician in a camping van: with the cinema documentary “The Bus”, American director Damon Ristau has succeeded in creating a film which covers everything many people associate with the Volkswagen Bus to this day – for instance freedom, travel, fun and independence. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has now given the film its European premiere showing in Hanover.
Two years ago, filmmaker Ristau, who is a VW Bus fan himself, had the idea of combining both his hobbies and making a film about the VW Bus. As he envisaged it at the time, his film would be documenting a dying icon. However, the central theme of the work changed abruptly after the young director had journeyed to Hanover to search for archive material and contemporary eye-witnesses and to talk to Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
“I saw what the company had built up here since 2008 and how the heritage of the VW Bus continues to be cherished, and I suddenly realized that the cult will live on”, said the 32-year-old.
Instrumental in his change of heart: the team of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Oldtimers showed him around the halls of the ‘Bulli’ garage – not yet fully installed at that time – and explained to the American the idea that in future they would be restoring historic vehicles themselves.
And so it came about that the film took quite a different turning from that original planned and acquired a real happy end – because the VW Bus lives on.
In his film, which lasts just over 60 minutes, Damon Ristau accompanies fans who have always loved the VW Bus – better known in the USA as the Camper or Splitscreen. Like musician Dave Manning, who felt such affection for his travel companion that he even wrote a song about it, called “Vincent rolls”.
“The VW Bus has made me a better person”, Manning declares in the documentary. Because when you are on the road in a VW Bus, he says, people come up and talk to you much more often. They all have a story to tell, they all have personal memories and emotions. And he adds that – as we all know – in an automobile of venerable years one may occasionally get stranded and need help. This all makes for more communication than a driver would normally enjoy.
Damon Ristau was born in Portland, Oregon, USA in 1979. He studied photojournalism at the University of Montana and he now lives in Missoula, USA. In private life he drives a 1966 VW bus.
The film “The Bus” will first be able to be viewed at festivals and on the American Documentary Channel.
More on the Film: www.busmovie.com
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