"Who Is Bozo Texino?: The Secret History of Hobo Graffiti" (Screening)

Who Is Bozo Texino: The Secret History of Hobo Graffiti
Screening Followed by A Discussion with the Director
Tuesday, October 17, 7 pm
$5 Donation Requested

Come join us at Feed Your Head Books next Tuesday, October 17, at 7 pm for a truly unique film screening. Freight rider and van tramp, Bill Daniel will be stopping by for a screening of his 16-years-in-the-making, documentary, Who Is Bozo Texino?: The Secret History of Hobo Graffiti. This gritty black and white travelogue—shot entirely on film, primarily aboard speeding freight trains—tells the mostly factual account of the epic quest and unlikely discovery of railroading's most mysterious artist, Bozo Texino.

Daniel, who began the project by taking still photographs in 1983 before switching to Super 8 says, "When I first started seeing the graffiti on the trains—the monikers, the hobo stuff—I flipped out. It was an instant obsession. I'd just come back from New York, where I'd shot a bunch of Polaroids of graffiti in the street. I was really psyched for graffiti, politically and aesthetically, so when I saw the stuff on the trains, it was a real revelation." A revelation that led to a traveling man's two-decade odyssey, a trek covering 14 states. In 1987, Daniel and his trusty Bolex camera began hanging out in hobo jungles and riding freight trains across the West, looking for clues to the identity of a strange boxcar graffito. While gathering interviews and discovering clues to the identities of many of the most legendary boxcar artists, Daniel discovered a vast underground folkloric practice that has existed with little notice for over a century. Today these drawings live on as a new breed of hobos have taken to the rails and kept the tradition of moniker chalking alive. This art form provides unlikely common ground between mostly conservative rail workers and old school tramps and the kids whose approach includes spray cans and punk lifestyles.

For more information, please contact Randie at randie@feedyourheadbooks.com or 978-744-4009 or visit www.billdaniel.net.