Outskirts: Route 66

Adventures on a road once travelled

Once known as the High Street of America, Route 66 was the first great US highway. Winding its way through the beating heart of the country, it opened up the West coast and helped to forge the nation as we know it upon its completion in 1926.

But much has changed. The road itself has become outdated, faded and superseded by modern Interstate freeways while the nation it transects is crossed not only by highways but also gaping political fault lines.

Bypassed and broken as it may be in places, the historic Route 66 endures. A physical connection in a time of polarisation, a legacy of the American dream. In the first installment of Outskirts, Gus Morton, accompanied by three friends, rides the length of the highway from Chicago to LA. Shot from the hip, the film explores the road, the landscapes it traverses and the people who live beside it.

Once at the heart of a country, they now inhabit the outskirts.