HELL'S HIGHWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY FILMS is a
morbidly curious exploration of the near mythical driver education films
shown to American schoolchildren in the 1960s and ‘70s. Produced
between 1959 and 1979 in Mansfield, Ohio, films such as Signal 30 (1959)
encouraged safety by force-feeding high school kids color footage of
careless driving’s dark consequences: blood-stained wreckage, injured
bodies, fresh corpses.
In the 1970s and ’80s, these traumatic films disappeared from the American classroom and assumed an almost mythical status. Eager to document this obscure chapter of cinema history, filmmaker and restorationist Bret Wood compiled these vanishing artifacts of grim Americana into a feature, and interviewed the filmmakers responsible for this misguided educational movement.
Originally produced in 2002 in standard-definition video, this new edition of Hell’s Highway has been reconstructed through the remastering of the original 16mm interview footage, as new restorations of the original educational films which appear throughout the documentary.
In the 1970s and ’80s, these traumatic films disappeared from the American classroom and assumed an almost mythical status. Eager to document this obscure chapter of cinema history, filmmaker and restorationist Bret Wood compiled these vanishing artifacts of grim Americana into a feature, and interviewed the filmmakers responsible for this misguided educational movement.
Originally produced in 2002 in standard-definition video, this new edition of Hell’s Highway has been reconstructed through the remastering of the original 16mm interview footage, as new restorations of the original educational films which appear throughout the documentary.
Format: Digital
In general, the Hollywood Theatre does not provide content advisories about the subject matter shown in our theatre. Films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of the Hollywood Theatre. Information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media and DoesTheDogDie.com.