Nothing but a Man

USA / 1964 / English

Directed by Michael Roemer

With Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris

Duff Anderson is with a traveling ‘section gang’ of workers who install railway sleepers along the endless tracks of the southern United States. He is a man who has put an incomplete life on hold, favoring a lifestyle of constant motion over having to stop and reflect on things. In his hometown of Birmingham, he has a deteriorating father with whom he never connected, and a seven-year-old son in the care of a woman he has never met. Meanwhile the mother of that boy is long gone to a northern city and still using the money Duff sends her. His life follows the rails in slow motion, like a passenger who never disembarks, consisting of expectant waiting and bored male bonding – chess, cards, drinks with drab prostitutes, and rabbit-hunts.