landpirate
campervan untilising nomadic traveller
I watched this nice short earlier about a group of aviation employees who live in vans and trailers in an airport car park. Although, its a closed shop in terms of any of us parking up there, I identify with some of their feelings towards van life.
i've tried repeatedly to get the video to embed in the thread but without success so the link and story that accompany it are below. If anyone can work out how to embed the video let me know, or post it below. Thank you
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/o...ck&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&kwp_0=222722&_r=0
Home Is Where the Parking Lot Is
Op-Docs
By LANCE OPPENHEIM SEPT. 6, 2016
Taking a back-road shortcut to catch a flight from Los Angeles two years ago, I passed an obscure airline employee parking lot — and was surprised to see over 70 motor homes. It looked like there was an entire community planted right there in the parking lot of the airport. I wondered, who lived there — and why?
I learned that this community was an employee parking lot turned motor-home park made up of pilots, flight attendants and mechanics. And I became fascinated by why and how the residents — people who may have flown us across the country, or walked us through emergency landing procedures — came to inhabit such an unusual place.
When I returned there last December, it quickly became apparent that the lot rarely attracted visitors, especially those carrying cameras. Residents did not immediately embrace me — a student filmmaker. So I was grateful when a few of them decided to share their takes on their unique living situation with me — and was struck by the contradictions in how they view their homes. While many communities seem to confer on their residents a sense of stability, those at the employee parking lot today generally view their homes as temporary. But if a home is traditionally considered a place where one yearns to return to — a place where the heart is, so to speak — can a temporary dwelling be a home?
Their perspectives are rooted in their community’s complicated history. The lot was created at least a decade ago as an airport-sponsored program offering airline employees a place to rest before heading to their next destination. Today, however, the next destination for many of the lot’s residents is unknown. As a result of pursuing their dream of working in the aviation industry, with its attendant transient lifestyle, many of the parking lot’s residents are estranged from their families. They are largely a community of people living alone, together — and most now consider the lot “home.” But airport officials do not necessarily share their enthusiasm. Instead, they are actively seeking ways to re-appropriate the space where the community is situated and have slowly, and steadily, reduced the number of its residents.
I hope this film will help expand and challenge traditional views of what constitutes a home in 21st-century America. Because as unconventional as their living situation may be, the residents of this airport parking lot told me their homes afford them something we all seek: freedom.
i've tried repeatedly to get the video to embed in the thread but without success so the link and story that accompany it are below. If anyone can work out how to embed the video let me know, or post it below. Thank you
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/o...ck&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&kwp_0=222722&_r=0
Home Is Where the Parking Lot Is
Op-Docs
By LANCE OPPENHEIM SEPT. 6, 2016
Taking a back-road shortcut to catch a flight from Los Angeles two years ago, I passed an obscure airline employee parking lot — and was surprised to see over 70 motor homes. It looked like there was an entire community planted right there in the parking lot of the airport. I wondered, who lived there — and why?
I learned that this community was an employee parking lot turned motor-home park made up of pilots, flight attendants and mechanics. And I became fascinated by why and how the residents — people who may have flown us across the country, or walked us through emergency landing procedures — came to inhabit such an unusual place.
When I returned there last December, it quickly became apparent that the lot rarely attracted visitors, especially those carrying cameras. Residents did not immediately embrace me — a student filmmaker. So I was grateful when a few of them decided to share their takes on their unique living situation with me — and was struck by the contradictions in how they view their homes. While many communities seem to confer on their residents a sense of stability, those at the employee parking lot today generally view their homes as temporary. But if a home is traditionally considered a place where one yearns to return to — a place where the heart is, so to speak — can a temporary dwelling be a home?
Their perspectives are rooted in their community’s complicated history. The lot was created at least a decade ago as an airport-sponsored program offering airline employees a place to rest before heading to their next destination. Today, however, the next destination for many of the lot’s residents is unknown. As a result of pursuing their dream of working in the aviation industry, with its attendant transient lifestyle, many of the parking lot’s residents are estranged from their families. They are largely a community of people living alone, together — and most now consider the lot “home.” But airport officials do not necessarily share their enthusiasm. Instead, they are actively seeking ways to re-appropriate the space where the community is situated and have slowly, and steadily, reduced the number of its residents.
I hope this film will help expand and challenge traditional views of what constitutes a home in 21st-century America. Because as unconventional as their living situation may be, the residents of this airport parking lot told me their homes afford them something we all seek: freedom.
