The documentary film Westbound, which screened at the Memorial Union Theater Wednesday night, follows the life and art of Grand Duke of the Hobos Adolph Vandertie to illuminate the simple beauty of the hobo lifestyle and aesthetic.

Westbound‘s director Jim Rivett most succeeds in presenting a hobo–albeit a prolific one–as a veritable, masterly, and unique artist. Vandertie collected, carved and whittled over 4,000 pieces of incredibly complex work, all of which are relatable and pure forms of expression despite his until now unheralded past. In his raspy Wisconsin accent, Vandertie has something humbly profound to say on a variety of subjects important to the twentieth century American experience. He lamentingly ruminates on the Catholic education of his youth as genuinely as Joyce; his oeuvre is extensive enough for him to be considered the hobo Proust; and his personal nonfiction of life in the Great Depression calls to mind the work of Steinbeck. Yet despite the similarities, there can be no mistaking the absolute uniqueness of Vandertie, nor that of the film itself.

In an age where so many films are produced with the intention of becoming mainstream blockbusters, Westbound takes a decidedly different approach at exploring the aesthetic potency of an individual inseparable from his time and place in the American narrative. It beautifully appropriates Vandertie’s humble whittlings out of the boxcars and into the museums to suggest that one can discover true art in where it is least expected. In this way, it reminds us of the real power of documentary filmmaking: the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary and to demonstrate how meaning can be conferred on all things.