Railfan (verb): to ride trains or subways with no particular destination in mind.
Railfan (noun): a film about kids who love trains and the people who love them.
Railfan (the film!): a documentary feature that follows a photographer taking portraits of autistic kids who love subways in NYC.
We need YOUR help to finish our film so we can create more empathy in the world, one subway car at a time.
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SYNOPSIS (LONG) : Travis Huggett is a fine-art photographer from Manhattan, whose grade schooler, Orson, is an autistic railfan, much like his slightly older cousin, Booker. At first, Travis thought it was just an odd coincidence. When Orson started going to a school for ASD kids in Brooklyn, Travis noticed just how many other autistic boys shared this obsession. Why did they all like trains, and why did they relate to them in so many different ways? Some loved maps and schedules, others were lulled by the sensation of the ride.
Travis pursued this notion as an art project: creating portraits of railfans doing what they love. He began by asking the other parents in his son’s class if he could travel with them and their child on their favourite subway routes. Word of his project spread amongst NYC’s autistic community. But Travis didn’t know how much it was going to take off.
Railfan follows Travis as he rides with six of the children featured in his original portrait series (including his son Orson and nephew Booker). We go with them on new portrait sessions around the MTA to their favourite stations and destinations from Grand Central Station to Coney Island. Along the way you’ll meet Mason, a quiet boy who makes remakes subway lines he rides in his bedroom; Marley, a non-verbal girl from Queens who finds peace in the rocking motion of the F train; and twelve-year-old Colin from Brooklyn, who loves the”3″ and dreams of being a YouTube star.
By pulling the frame back to show Travis’s process, we also importantly showing the loving relationship between each child and their parent. It takes a lot of care, and a lot of patience to raise a child with disabilities Autism can often leave both parents and their kids struggling to connect. But when they’re young, and on the subway together, they at least find a common ground… But as we enter our second act, we find out what happens when Railfans grow up.
Travis’s son Orson is now 14 and ready to go on his first ‘solo’ train trips. Travis is concerned, and seeks guidance. He sets out to meet up with the other families, to see how they are managing the push and pull between independence and safety. In NYC, the subway can be a dangerous place at the best of times. It’s place where as Chanel (Mason’s mom) puts it “You have to keep your head on a swivel.”
The dream for our documentary was finding a setting to display Travis’ portraits that both the parents and the kids would appreciate. It came about through a partnership made possibly by a year of communication between our team and the MTA itself. Their public institution, the New York Transit Museum has very deep ties to the ASD community, including their award-winning Subway Sleuths program. After the MTA connected us, the museum agreed to host Travis’s debut exhibit of the Railfan portraits on their working subway platform. Travis set up a pop-up gallery, and welcomed all the families to see their kids in a new light. The NYTM also arranged a heritage train ride on their unique rolling stock. It made for a magical moment, one that brought together kids and the parents, in the place they love best.
Railfan finishes on a note of reflection. For Travis he’s discovered the subway is a place where he can “freeze time” and show the love that holds them all together. Our film has been a journey into a secret world where imagination and urban geographies overlap. And it shares the journey all these young Railfans and their parents will soon make, the “transfer” from children to adulthood.