Coming Soon

Barge

Directed by Ben Powell

A towboat drifts down the Mississippi River, due for the port of New Orleans. The water, the banks, the bright lights of a port ahead; the lure of a coming paycheck and a home-cooked meal. This is the world of Barge. On board, dry land’s misfits find purpose and direction twenty-eight days at a time as the steady hands of an industrial ecosystem teeming with line boats, fleet boats, and a few million tons of cargo moved each year. A green deckhand following his father and grandmother into the family business. A former convict working his way upward job by job, in the hopes of being First Mate. A thirty-eight year veteran engineer in no hurry to retire. An ancient waterway pulling a double shift as the backbone of a national economy; a tangle of thick steel cables, tied together just right. As long as the boat’s moving, they’re making money. An intimate portrait of the machinery of American ambitions.

AWARDS

Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Dallas International Film Festival

Best Feature Documentary at the 2015 Crossroads Film Festival

Honorable Mention: Best Documentary at the 2015 Ashland Independent Film Festival

Austin Film Society Grant in 2013 

Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant in 2012

Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund in 2011

2015 • 1 hour & 15 minutes

Showtimes

1561266000 : 1711716122