The Circus: Down the Road

2019 • 97 minutos

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Can the American big top circus survive the internet age, or will this ancient and vibrant culture be lost forever? The Circus: Down the Road tells the story of the American big top circus, the story of a society desperately holding onto its way of life.

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This wonderful documentary takes you inside a traveling circus over a number of years. You get to watch some of the performers grow up and come to understand what an interesting and complex community they form. The documentary captures lots of moments of enchantment, and we get a sense of what the audiences in the endless towns experience as the circus moves across country. In addition to the entertainment the circus provides and the life stories of the performers, we also get a strong sense of just how hard and demanding the circus life is: continual practice, putting up and taking down the circus day after day, always on the road, day and night. And, finally, the film becomes a kind of elegy for a form of entertainment that is harder and harder to sustain. There is a mix of gumption and sadness in the air as the members of the circus talk about all the circus means to them and how they believe the circus will continue on....though we, the audience, can see that it might not. This film will stir a lot of different emotions, for it touches on so many aspects of the human drama, as lived within the community of the circus.