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Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Filmstill One Road to Quartzsite
One Road to Quartzsite
Ryan Maxey
Quartzsite, Arizona. A small town in the middle of the desert becomes a huge camping ground in winter, where a motley community live the other side of the “American Dream”.
Filmstill One Road to Quartzsite

One Road to Quartzsite

One Road to Quartzsite
Ryan Maxey
Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Documentary Film
USA
2022
89 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

Quartzsite, Arizona. A town in the middle of the desert which regularly turns into a huge camping ground where up to a million people from the northern US states escape winter. It’s less chilly here, and people of every kind are welcome to rent a plot of dry land for 180 dollars. Ryan Maxey joins them for three seasons in a row, approaching the motley community with an intimate and at the same time soberly observant eye.

Meth junkies, gun lovers, constitution keepers, a trans woman dressed in pink and breeding cuddly pets and white men wearing “Black Guns Matter” t-shirts. People trade everything and help each other. Sometimes it can get rough. But the US-American flag, the ever-present guns and collective prayer are part of life, just like the democratic choice between pancakes and hamburgers. Maxey’s documentary foray takes him through all these lives and lifestyles which he seems to register sometimes with affectionate tenderness, sometimes shaking his head. Despite his critical semi-distance, he is clearly a part of the community he portrays. His film, a collaborative work in some ways, combines shots of this place from different perspectives and different times. Ambivalences persist, which is why all judgement must be preliminary.
Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Ryan Maxey
Cinematographer
Ryan Maxey
Editor
Ryan Maxey
Producer
Josh Polon, Ryan Maxey
Sound
William Tabaneau
Score
Ilan Rubin
World Sales
Noah Lang