Roam Sweet Home
Encyclopedia
Roam Sweet Home is a road-trip documentary
about the lives of retirees who live on the road full-time in trailers, due to economic necessity, pleasure, or both. Filmmaker Ellen Spiro
and her dog, Sam, join a community of American nomads in order to explore their unconventional lifestyle first hand.
Through Spiro’s innovative and interpersonal style of filmmaking she captures the spirit of the roamers and the wide variety of reasons they abandoned the more traditional means of retirement. One group of women discusses the thrill of independence and sheer freedom they discovered after escaping repressive relationships. Another expounds upon the pleasures of traveling unencumbered throughout the country.
The film is narrated by Spiro’s dog, Sam, as he shares his perspective on the whims and follies of human nature. Aging himself, Sam adds an emotional perspective through his musings on death and the journey through life.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about the lives of retirees who live on the road full-time in trailers, due to economic necessity, pleasure, or both. Filmmaker Ellen Spiro
Ellen Spiro
Ellen Spiro is an American documentary filmmaker. Spiro is known for making humorous social issue films for national and international television broadcasts and theatrical release....
and her dog, Sam, join a community of American nomads in order to explore their unconventional lifestyle first hand.
Through Spiro’s innovative and interpersonal style of filmmaking she captures the spirit of the roamers and the wide variety of reasons they abandoned the more traditional means of retirement. One group of women discusses the thrill of independence and sheer freedom they discovered after escaping repressive relationships. Another expounds upon the pleasures of traveling unencumbered throughout the country.
The film is narrated by Spiro’s dog, Sam, as he shares his perspective on the whims and follies of human nature. Aging himself, Sam adds an emotional perspective through his musings on death and the journey through life.
Awards
- Grand Prize at the Big Muddy Film Festival
- National Media Owl award presented by Gene Siskel for the Retirement Research Foundation