“A thought-provoking and powerful cinematic experience that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.”

- Overly Honest Movie Reviews

“The Shaws’ journey is a compelling story, a roller coaster ride of poverty, recovery and relapse with a major stroke of good luck and a shocking consequence to relapse.”

-Movie Gourmet

“Americana goes feral…in the heartbreaking documentary Motel Drive…”

- Film Threat, 9/10

"Even a prior viewing of 'The Florida Project' will not prepare viewers for the often heartbreaking realities chronicled in Brendan Geraghty’s documentary feature 'Motel Drive.'”

-Beyond Chron

Within a community of motels infamous for illicit activity, the Shaw family grapples with housing insecurity and addiction while trying to raise their young son. When California's High-Speed Rail project displaces them, a glimpse of stability appears within reach.

Located along a sun-bleached stretch of Fresno, "Motel Drive" is a row of historic motels that have seen better days. Originally a regional hub for performers on the circuit, Nat Cole, Sinatra and the Stones played here. Then the 99 freeway bypassed the strip, triggering a rapid decline. 

Today, the motels are home to sex workers, veterans, and more than 130 families. It's all ground zero for a city eager to tackle its overlapping crises of addiction, poverty and affordable housing, and finally shed its reputation as “the meth capital of America." 

Enter the largest infrastructure project in the U.S. history: the California High-Speed Rail, which breaks ground directly on Motel Drive. 

Over the next 7 years, this cinema vérité documentary observes the rippling impacts of this giant public project through the lens of one family, the Shaws, as they strive for the most basic of comforts — a stable home.