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SIFF DocFest: DRIVER

USA | 2024 | 90 min. | Nesa Azimi

October 6, 2024

DocFest

Nesa Azimi’s soulful debut feature embeds us with a determined group of female, long-haul truck drivers as they forge a network to pursue safety and equitable treatment on the road.

Individual Tickets: Select showtime to purchase
Passes: $100 | $75 Members - Provides access to all DocFest screenings

SIFF year-round passes are not valid for DocFest screenings.

“DRIVER feels like a breath of fresh air… A simply-made gaze into an overlooked culture, one deserving of far more respect than it’s received and one that Azimi has captured beautifully."—Brian Farvour, The Playlist

“[An] eye-opening doc… The allure of the open road can be deeply felt, often making the viewer feel as if they’re riding shotgun.”—Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest

After losing everything, Desiree Wood has a hard-won second lease on life as a long-haul truck driver, continuously criss-crossing the country while constantly fighting to get fair pay for her next load, but a deteriorating US labor landscape and predatory industry practices keeps putting her financial security and personal safety further and further out of reach. Gathering an ​​irreverent coalition of women drivers together into an organization named “REAL Women In Trucking,” Desiree and company join forces to seek a sustainable path forward, at the risk of losing it all once more. Filmed over the course of three years, first-time filmmaker Nesa Azimi employs an intimate lens as she draws you into the rhythms of the road with Desiree, as Desiree struggles to balance the demands of being a working driver with her additional ambitions to lead this newly founded collective from her truck—which itself is constantly at risk of being repossessed.

  • Director: Nesa Azimi
  • Principal Cast: Desiree Wood, Michelle Kitchin, Idella Hansen, Debbie (Dingo) Desiderato, Jess Graham, Brita Nowak
  • Country: USA
  • Year: 2024
  • Running Time: 90 min.
  • Producer: Nesa Azimi, Ines Hofmann Kanna, Nicolas Borel
  • Cinematographers: Carissa Henderson, Victor Tadashi Suárez, Joel Van Haren
  • Editors: Nesa Azimi, Nicolas Borel
  • Music: Udit Duseja
  • Website: Official Film Website
  • Filmography: Debut Feature Film
  • Language: English
  • Format: DCP