Self
This documentary introduces you to the entirety of the Amtrak service network, which spans from coast to coast, and border to border. From both trackside and onboard perspectives, you’ll see and survey the trains that so many ride for practical purposes and pure enjoyment. Along the way you’ll learn about Amtrak’s intriguing origin story, its on-going challenges, and insights on what’s yet to come.
A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
