dirt

Jeff Bowden's mud-streaked documentary follows a championship season of world-class Street Stocks. This is the bottom class of American dirt-track auto racing, played out in all its beer-bellied glory at the legendary Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas. The film is a study of the larger-than-life redneck racers as they collide on the track, while some lives skid into a ditch off-track.
Gayla Jones, a rookie and the only female driver at the Devil's Bowl, struggles with viciously sexist Southerners while dealing with the bizarre love triangle that exists between Jones, her husband and their mechanic - this is like a Jerry Springer remake of a Peter Greenaway film.
Travis Pace, a former champ, had to sit out the previous season after accidentally blowing up his house while welding. Another driver takes on board the second-largest machine-gun dealer in Texas as a sponsor. Beyond the strange soap opera of racing is a highly perceptive investigation into a rich subculture. [Dirt] has a high-octane soundtrack by psychobilly outlaws Southern Culture on the Skids.
Jeff Bowden will be attending the festival.---D/P Jeff Bowden WS Julie Espinosa TD video/col/2005/81mins
Jeff Bowden was born in Waco, USA, in 1959. [Dirt] (MIFF 05) is his first feature documentary.