Wheel Estate (DVD)

Depending on who you ask, they are the bane of the highways or a physical manifestation of the American dream, icons of freedom and mobility that let travelers take the comforts of home on the road or "silver Twinkies." WHEEL ESTATE explores the weird and wonderful world of travel trailers and recreational vehicles, meeting the men and women who live on the road, the engineers who keep their dreams moving and tracing the evolution of these distinctive vehicles. The earliest examples were homemade, Model T Fords converted with wooden houses on back. By the 1950s, the well-heeled and willing could plunk down $75,000 and drive away with the Executive Flagship, which boasted a portable swimming pool and room to sleep six. During the Depression, makeshift examples were staples in the "Hoovervilles" that sprang up across the nation, temporary towns of those displaced from their land. From the earliest examples to the next generation of RVs, no road is left untraveled in WHEEL ESTATE.

• documentary