John T. Davis: Route 66 
John T. Davis is internationally recognised as Northern Ireland’s most distinctive documentary filmmaker and cinematographer.
To mark his 70th birthday in March, and in recognition of his over 40 years of filmmaking, QFT is mounting a retrospective of his work.
Route 66 is an epic road film chronicling the history and closure in 1981 of the iconic highway that, mythologised in music, film and literature, spanned 2,500 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, traversed eight states and cut through the heart of Middle America. ‘So many images and places which were important to me and my generation came from America, and I wanted to make a film comparing those images with reality,’ says Davis. The film features an anonymous sojourner driving a cherry red Chevy Impala ragtop, who travels the highway west. Through his eyes and through Davis’s camera lens we encounter the underbelly of the US and the shattering of the American Dream. That Route 66 was made in 1984, when in Davis’ words, ‘Just like Route 66, America was grinding and cracking at the seams’, gives the film a strikingly renewed resonance in the current political climate.
The screening will be introduced by John T. Davis.
Part Two of Peripheral Visions: John T. Davis, A Retrospective also includes:
Hip to the Tip - Atlantic, The Independent Years
Discover more about the work of John T. Davis here.
This season is presented in partnership with Film Hub NI. Special thanks to Northern Ireland Screen, the Irish Film Institute, Peter Strain and Yellowmoon.
