Motel Drive

(THIS FILM WAS PART OF OUR 2023 FESTIVAL LINEUP AND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE ON THE SLAMDANCE CHANNEL) Located along a sun-bleached stretch of Fresno, "Motel Drive" is a row of historic motels that have seen better days. Originally a regional hub for performers on the circuit, Nat Cole, Sinatra and The Stones played here. Then the 99 freeway bypassed the strip, triggering a rapid decline. Today, the motels are home to sex workers, veterans, and more than 130 families. It's all ground zero for a city eager to tackle its overlapping crises of addiction, poverty and affordable housing, and finally shed its reputation as “the meth capital of America." Enter the largest infrastructure project in U.S. history: California High-Speed Rail, which breaks ground directly on Motel Drive. Over the next 7 years, this cinema vérité documentary observes the rippling impacts of this giant public project through the lens of one family, The Shaws, as they strive for the most basic of comforts — a stable home.