HIGHWAY TIME
Written and Directed by Kate Duhamel
DV
87 Minute Feature Film
2000
Synopsis
Five petty felons quickly discover their four days of highway clean-up duty aren’t going to be ordinary when they’re left alone by an eccentric supervising officer to clean an empty highway. When a valuable stash of discarded drugs and odd reflections in a mysterious porta-potty mirror unexpectedly appear, they must confront each other and their illusions.
Five petty felons quickly discover that a four-day stint of highway clean-up duty is not going to be spent cleaning the highway. When their supervising deputy disappears over a hill to target shoot all day, leaving them with only a warning to behave or their duty will be extended, the crew discovers there is no trash to pick up on this highway anyway.
Blade (Sammi Rotibi) immediately gives up any attempt to appear as if he’s working, retreating to the shade of an oak tree. But Rudy (Daniel Bryant), a plucky young black man has reason to avoid more highway time. He cajoles the others, a rebellious shoplifter, Autumn (Erin Underwood), a finicky and nervous 50 year old, Diane (Caroline McWilliams), and a hung-over car mechanic, Bruce (Courtney Gains) into at least appearing to work.
The first day is long and hot until Diane musters up the courage to use the porta-potty. A mirror hanging there reflects something other than the face of who seems to be looking in it. Unsure of whether its her imagination or not, Diane finds frequent reason to visit the bathroom, seeing increasingly intriguing reflections.
When the deputy returns to the same spot the next day, the rag-tag foursome resorts to passing the time by conducting a telephone ruse to convince Bruce’s girlfriend that he’s still at work. But everything changes when the crew stumbles upon a partially buried stash of valuable loot. The felons must decide what to do with it, and how to split the bounty. Blade, remaining aloof and remote resting in the tree, is a mysterious problem for the other four as they wrestle with how to share it.
The felons decide to hide the goods in the bus, planning to retrieve them the next day when they can all go together to make the sale. Settling in to pass time, they all find reason to visit the bathroom. As the mysterious mirror provides increasingly revealing reflections for each of them, we come to understand the loneliness underlying each of their lives. The final day’s cataclysmic events reveal that much more than money has been found among them, and the real source of riches isn’t what they thought it was.
Cast and Crew
Rudy |
Daniel Bryant |
|
Diane |
Caroline McWilliams |
|
Bruce |
Courtney Gains |
|
Autumn |
Erin Underwood |
|
Blade |
Sammi Rotibi |
|
Deputy |
Dennis Lee Kelly |
|
Ben |
Eric Davenport |
|
Director of Photography |
Howard Shack |
|
Original Music Composed and Produced by: |
Marco d’Ambrosio Marcoco |









