About four times a year in rural Pennsylvania discarded school buses are auctioned off to bidders most of whom are from Central America.  They have been decommissioned after 8 – 12 years of ferrying kids to school, but are still in good road-worthy condition.  In this delightful documentary from Student Academy Award Nominated filmmaker Mark Kendall, we follow one such bus as it migrates south to its new home in Guatemala.

On the move for 16 hours a day the driver is relaxed as he drives through the US (‘nothing bad will happen here if you behave yourself’) but once he crosses the border to Mexico he recounts with genuine intrepidation the risks he must now face. Other drivers have been robbed, held up at gun point, and badly beaten up, and there is always the constant expectations of bribery demands from the Police and other authorities.  Once he crosses over the next border to Guatemala, the journey is relatively plain sailing.

In Quetzal City the dealer sells the bus on to a local man who has scraped together the deposit as he sees it as an opportunity to escape the poverty of his village where it is no longer feasible to raise his family any more. He commissions a designer to turn the yellow bus into a brightly colored exotic vehicle that will become a ‘camioneta’ which will transport poor working people between cities for a very small fare.

There’s an enormous sense of pride from the new owner and his family and friends as he has the transformed bus blessed by a Priest before it starts its first run. However they are all  more than aware that the cost of his wanting a better life can possibly result in him losing it.   The gangsters that used to be satisfied with just ‘shaking down’ the myriad of new bus owners, have now become even greedier and murderous villains.  In 2010 over 130 drivers were killed, and one bus was actually bombed for allegedly refusing the Extortionists demands.

Despite these very real risks, Kendall’s tale is surprisingly upbeat and focuses on this whole new generation of Guatemalans who are so determined to improve their lot with something that was very plain and ordinary that Americans were so quick to toss aside, and now is a piece of stunning folk art and their means to a better life.

In theaters now, and coming soon to Netflix

★★★★★★★★