Product Description

A road trip across America in 1976 becomes a search for The American Dream. Warm, funny and all too true, Jacobs vividly captures the early days of video journalism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201062 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-02-02
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
A road trip turns into a patchwork portrait of Real America in True Life Video Stories. In 1976, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Scott Jacobs, disenchanted with the newspaper business, hit the road with a portapak (a black-and-white precursor to the video camera) and started filming. Along the way he captured everything from the Chicago Golden Gloves tournament to a San Francisco festival for free spirits. The best piece follows Art Baldwin, named "Best Santa in Chicago," as he transforms from working stiff into a surprisingly compelling St. Nick. True Life Video Stories makes excellent use of the DVD format. One can watch the longer pieces straight through, or choose to see them interspersed with shorter clips and Jacobs's commentary on his trip. This interesting scrapbook of 1976 America is well worth a look. --Ali Davis

Studs Terkel
"Jacobs has given us On The Road for the video generation."

Tom Weinberg, The 90's
"Raw, real, funny and all too true. . . a remarkable remembrance of when video was video."

Customer Reviews

Very cool portrait of America in the 70s.
Scott Jacobs's video portraits are wonderfully low-key glimpses of an America in transition. It shows real people from various walks of life trying to live the old-fashioned American Dream during a time when Corporate America was in a period of rapid growth. Included in the portraits are a novice lightweight boxer, a politician, cattle farmers, an exotic dancer, an ex-con, street people, a Vaudeville act, some hippies, and an elderly department-store Santa Claus. Jacobs does not conduct interviews on the videos, but rather strikes up conversations. The result is nothing extremely dramatic or tragic, but it's the earthy, laid-back realness of the video that makes each segment touching in its own way. This DVD definitely deserves a look.