Motel

All of these motel are STILL there. It would be great to see an update on what has changed and what has not.

Christian Blackwood's fascination with the open road has led him to visit some interesting places and even more interesting people, several of whom are the subjects of this unique documentary. It's a road movie set just off the road, at the type of unassuming overnight lodging most travelers take for granted. The director's natural curiosity enables him to separate uncommon individuals (mostly women) from their otherwise common surroundings: a trio of owner/managers in Santa Fe; the wives and girlfriends of men behind bars in Florence, Arizona (including one touching May/December romance); and (best of all) the eccentric dancer who, single-handedly, revived the old Armagosa Opera House in the semi-ghost town of Death Valley Junction, California. The film is a reminder that everyone has a story to tell, and those related here are too unusual to be anything but the truth.

Christian Blackwood's fascination with the open road has led him to visit some interesting places and even more interesting people, several of whom are the subjects of this unique documentary. It's a road movie set just off the road, at the type of unassuming overnight lodging most travelers take for granted. The director's natural curiosity enables him to separate uncommon individuals (mostly women) from their otherwise common surroundings: a trio of owner/managers in Santa Fe; the wives and girlfriends of men behind bars in Florence, Arizona (including one touching May/December romance); and (best of all) the eccentric dancer who, single-handedly, revived the old Armagosa Opera House in the semi-ghost town of Death Valley Junction, California. The film is a reminder that everyone has a story to tell, and those related here are too unusual to be anything but the truth.

Filmmaker Christian Blackwood has an enjoyably open, intimate dialogue with the wonderfully charismatic owners of three motels in New Mexico, Arizona and Death Valley. Motel is one of the most moving, passionate, innately fascinating documentaries I have had the pleasure of revisiting in quite some time. Many of the colourful stories herein are vividly recounted, and the lyrical final segment at the almost otherworldly Amargosa Hotel and Opera House is an aesthetic triumph. There's one exquisite sequence wherein the talented artiste Marta dances elegiacally though the more dilapidated areas of the hotel, which remain hauntingly beautiful. Christian Blackwood's soothing presence is wholly benign, his soft, kindly, politely inquisitive tones recall Herzog, in fact, I honestly feel that Blackwood's never less than delightful 'Motel' has a spirited Herzogian soul to match its enormously humane heart.

Just watched this on youtube after someone recommended on the Incredibly Strange Film facebook page. The selection of interviews were interesting and personable.

You have to watch it to appreciate it, and I would like to spread the word about this doc so it is not forgotten. If it wasn't for the advent of youtube, it would have likely have been long ago.

It does have a feeling and style not unlike some of the best documentary film makers. Checking the bio, Christian Blackwood early death certainly stunted his career and wider spread acknowledgement. Well worth watching, and I think a delight for anyone seriously in to documentaries.