
Who Wants A Ride?
Austin's pedicab drivers pull up a curb and start talking, and this film just lets the camera run. Ron Swafford gathers the people who pedal tourists and bar-hoppers around downtown Austin at night, trading stories about strange fares, near-misses, and the physical grind of hauling passengers for tips. David Moss, a cellist who drives a pedicab between gigs, is one of the voices featured, and his account sits alongside drivers describing what it actually costs to make rent doing this work as the city around them gets more expensive. The tone stays loose and funny for long stretches, full of the kind of anecdotes that circulate among people who spend their nights on the same few blocks, but the drivers also talk plainly about money troubles and about leaning on each other when the job gets hard. A soundtrack from the band The Blue Hit runs under the interviews. There's no narrator steering the material; it's the drivers' own stories, told in their own words, about a small, specific corner of Austin's street life.