How Many Roads 2005

Directed by Jos de Putter

A documentary road movie composed as a pop album. Twelve text snippets by Bob Dylan give just as many fans a basis to elucidate their relationship with the legendary folk singer who then turned 65. This produces a portrait of Dylan followers in the US, which appears to be as divers as the population of this dominant world power. Two schoolgirls that sing to their idol, a therapist that bases his lessons on Dylan, an ultraconservative website administrator, a soldier packing his things for Iraq and some figures that have placed themselves, consciously or not, outside society. Dylan himself is conspicuous by his absence. The tumbling cardboards with text scraps refer to the music video of Subterranean Homesick Blues from DA Pennebaker's Dylan portrait Don't Look Back (1967). It gradually becomes clear that you can always put yourself in the right with Bob, because everybody can distil their own truth from his lyrics, as long as you interpret them creatively.