Road Dreams

Road Dreams is a series of six television programmes, each of approximately 25 minutes duration, last shown on British terrestrial television in the early 1990s on Channel 4. A DVD with 13 short films using the Road Dreams footage is available from the producer's website - www.retroroadtrips.com - and all six original episodes can be viewed on YouTube. The programmes were created by Elliott Bristow, being a compilation of Super 8 mm film footage filmed by Bristow during an extended stay in the United States. Each programme opens with the following text: "In 1968 Elliott Bristow went to New York for a two week holiday. In 1980, after twelve years and 500,000 miles on the road in America he returned to England with three trunks containing 75 hours of silent Super 8 film - his diary of this 'holiday'!" The programmes depict Bristow's journeys across the USA. Many pieces were filmed whilst driving; others show Bristow's friends and locations he visited. Because of the source material, the technical quality of the programme suffers; some may consider this to be part of the charm of the work. The footage is accompanied by occasional explanatory comments from Bristow, readings by Mark Murphy and music tracks. The music is mainly but not exclusively instrumental classical and New Age music.