Auto racing is an obsession in Anderson, Indiana. Even with local auto factories closing down and jobs being lost, the town's residents continue to flock to the local speedway every Friday night--and its drivers continue to pour their dwindling resources into their Thundercars. Emmy(R)-winning filmmaker Jon Alpert presents this look at this passion for racing in rust-belt America. Since the closing of a GM plant and the loss of 33,000 jobs, the once-thriving town of Anderson now stands witness to empty factories, shuttered stores and abandoned home--but also to packed houses at Anderson Speedway where people put their troubles on hold to watch the cacophony of screeching tires and crashing metal as drivers vie for Thundercar supremacy.
Direction
Jon Alpert's 40 years of vérité mastery lets subjects breathe without exploitation.
Production
Grimy 16mm footage that makes every dented fender feel like economic poetry.
Director
Jon Alpert
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Anderson Speedway opened in 1948 and remains one of the oldest continuously operating short tracks in America; its survival through deindustrialization mirrors similar tracks across Ohio and Michigan.
Director Jon Alpert co-founded Downtown Community Television Center in 1972 and was the first documentarian embedded with US troops in Iraq—his eye for working-class struggle was honed decades before this project.
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