What happens when you gaze at yourself in a muddled puddle of self-reflection? For filmmaking duo Bill and Turner Ross, it’s all about turning the camera inward to look outward, courtesy of the cinema verité style.
The Ross Brothers’ latest feature, “Gasoline Rainbow,” follows five teenagers from small-town Oregon as they embark on one final adventure together after high school: reaching the Pacific coast, 500 miles away. Along the way, the group encounters outsiders from the fringes of the American West and discovers that the contours of their lives will be set by trails they blaze themselves. They are forgotten kids from a forgotten town, but they have their freedom and they have each other, hurtling toward an unknowable future — and The Party at the End of the World.
While “Gasoline Rainbow” has been mistaken as a documentary, the feature is, in fact, loosely scripted and relies on the improvisational techniques of its five leads, played by Tony Abuerto, Micah Bunch, Nichole Dukes, Nathaly Garcia, and Makai Garza.
The Ross Brothers, whose previous features include festival favorites “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” and “Contemporary Color,” described “Gasoline Rainbow” as a “punk rock” version of “The Wizard of Oz” meets “Easy Rider” in a directors’ statement.
“This is not a documentary but it is very sincere,” Turner Ross said. “We found if you give people a mask, then they actually share more than they would if we were just asking them to be themselves.”
The directors created scenarios in which an improvisational self-portrait of a generation could flourish.
Turner Ross added to IndieWire upon the film‘s Venice premiere, “The documentary community — the non-fiction community — has really been kind to us. But the modes with which we operate are not part of the code around how journalistic documentary works. We look at this as a creative endeavor. We’re making movies. This is art for us. To get to the most honest place has meant dealing with honest people in honest situations, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be constructed.”
The film is executive produced by Matt Sargeant, Bryn Mooser, and Josh Penn, with Claire Haley and Joanne Feinberg co-producing alongside casting directors Lauren Cargo and Jesy Rae Buhl. Michael Gottwald and Carlos Zozaya serve as producers.
“Gasoline Rainbow” premieres in select theaters May 10 and will be available to stream on Mubi May 31. Check out the trailer below and read the IndieWire review here.
