We have always liked family road trips, right?
Since childhood, we simply love to sit on a reserved seat inside the car to witness those unforgettable moments that await us on the road.
Guidedoc knows this and has prepared for you this list of eight documentary road movies that will make you feel the wind on your face.
Award-winning films like Thelma and Louis and Little Miss Sunshine were big hits not only for their memorable characters but also for containing stories that flowed through a journey.
Since ancient times, the structure of the journey has been an effective narrative device for telling a key moment in a character's life, a moment where they go through major changes, a moment where the landscape permeates their soul and establishes a point of no return in their life.
But what happens when the family, in one way or another, is a kind of a collective passenger in this road movie?
Traveling with the people we love can be as chaotic as it is enriching, and the following ten documentaries on this list are proof of that.
Mario Sabah and his two sons get into their old car to finally try to fulfill a lifelong dream: to go around the world on four wheels.
Starting in Uruguay, the trio manages to spin their way through five continents and 45 countries in which they almost die of cold in Canada, face a deadly crossing by a dangerous border in the Middle East and, in Istanbul, get to know to their idol, the captain of the Uruguayan football team.
The most interesting thing about this road trip is that we get to see how the characters grow spiritually, whether it is finding love, asserting their courage, or learning to defend their ideas and principles during the challenges they face in order to continue their journey.
A key scene in the film shows this issue during their stay in Australia. There, the three men argue passionately about where and when will be the end of their adventure. The World Cup South Africa 2010 now seems like a provocative destination.
Albert Castells, a paraplegic young Catalan boy, has decided to fully live his freedom through a hitchhiking journey on his wheelchair to the other side of the planet, with zero budget and only relying on the good samaritans of the road.
Albert, though, won’t travel alone. His girlfriend Anna will stand by his side, documenting the journey through more than 20 countries.
Motherless at an early age, diagnosed with leukemia at five and paraplegic as a result of the treatment, far from being a victim, Albert is a radiant blue-haired young boy with a beautiful girlfriend, a loving family, and an extraordinary positive spirit reflected in his constant smile.
Albert is happy to almost inconceivable extremes. He doesn’t antagonize his wheelchair nor place it on a pedestal. His journey is a story about being independent, the coming of age and one's attitudes when facing adversities.
After running away from home, Nigua, a boy from a humble region between Argentina and Bolivia, joins a small traveling circus to fulfill his dream of being one of the performers.
Under this tent, Nigua meets a new family with whom he intends to fulfill many dreams, among them to have his own circus. But times are hard and the circus threatens to disappear.
Not even his venture to open his own circus with the help of his young companions seems to be a way out to face his destiny.
In this endearing documentary, a young man embarks on a journey on foot through several countries with the company of one of his relatives: his grandmother's ashes. His goal, to carry the remains of his beloved Ana from France to her native Sweden.
During the journey, we hear the young man's reflections during a difficult moment in his life: he has lost his grandmother, he just graduated, and he is also going through a separation from his girlfriend, all at the same time.
In the midst of uncertainty, Anna makes him move forward after her death.
During a trip to India with his best friend, Ryan Chambers, the son of Australians Diane and Jock vanished completely.
Before disappearing, Ryan only left a note in which he writes "If I'm gone, I'm not dead. I need to free minds, but first I had to free my own." After several trips to India in a period of seven years without success, the Chambers decide to make a last trip together to the immense Indian subcontinent to reencounter with Ryan.
During their tour around various regions of the country, they approach different beliefs and philosophies of life that Ryan could have resorted to enriching his spirit.
They also get to know gentle volunteers who offer themselves to help them in their search. But finding or not their beloved son does not seem to be the only two options for Diane and Jock, two optimistic explorers on a journey full of hope and superstition.
What better reason to embark on a journey to another continent than to discover your family roots?
In this documentary, we follow singer Jairo Zavala, A.K.A Depedro, on his journey to Africa to rediscover his origins, in a film that becomes an inspiring musical road movie through the exuberant city of Casamance, in southern Senegal.
Russian director Denis Shabaev sets off on a road trip with his daughter to her grandmother's house, but the true destination is uncertain.
The absence of a mother gives way for father and daughter to have a trip of two solitudes that find themselves inside a car or in the open air of the different stops that they make during the route.
Like her father, the girl sometimes films from her point of view, making the trip a fractal experience full of random perspectives. A hotel room in the middle of the road is also a good opportunity to edit the film that is being filmed and which is interrupted by the constant phone calls that Shabaev receives.
They are the reminders of the work of a father who tries to heal his absence among the puerile games of a girl who begins to realize the change to come.
What if you could relive an incredible journey that took place fifty years before you were born?
In this short film, young filmmaker Janneke Swinkels discovers a series of photographs and letters written by her grandfather recounting an incredible journey: his bicycle trip from his small Dutch village to the city of Rome.
Through animations and the reading of the found correspondence, this film reminds us that cinema can make us travel back in time to live great dreams no matter where or when they occur.
Watch more great documentaries online on Guidedoc