In Manhattan, where driving is a game of inches – and occasionally middle fingers – there’s one teacher whose reputation for getting teens road-ready precedes her. A longtime Bronx resident born in Guyana, Shanti Gooljar boasts more than 30 years of driving school experience and a near-perfect pass rate for her students, who are often the children of New York City’s elite. The short documentary Shanti Rides Shotgun captures how, with a no-nonsense approach and an inventive potty mouth, Gooljar prepares students to thrive, or perhaps just survive, on the city’s chaotic roads. The US director Charles Frank films Gooljar in ride-alongs with students, where she’s unabashedly in her element, and in more tender moments at home, where she discusses the recent loss of her husband and the purpose she finds in her work. Captured with verve and heart, the piece makes for an exceptionally entertaining portrait while touching on deeper themes of class, grief and meaning.
Why not driving is my own form of resistance
As romantic petrochemical-fuelled narratives slip into the past, I’ve found my own kind of freedom in a life without a car
by Vicky Grut
