Women truckers unsung heroes who heed the call of freedom in new film

Trucker Jackie and director Ivo

By Dorothy Cox
The Trucker Staff

7/27/2007

A new documentary on women truck drivers, “Alligator on the Zipper,” will be making its way into the more than 300 Roady Truck Stops across the nation this fall.

The 60-minute film directed by Bulgarian-born filmmaker Ivo (pronounced EE-vo) Stainoff and produced by Jessica Chornesky, follows the lives of seven women truckers as they load up, eat, tie down and traverse the highways of America.

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, 40 years ago, Stainoff came to the United States in 1989 from Australia, where his family had emigrated. But he says some of his earliest memories are of his mother driving a truck in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia when he was a small child. He would sometimes ride in the cab with her. “It was this crude Russian machinery and it was freezing cold and smelled like diesel,” he recalls.

Fast forward to the recent past, when Stainoff and wife Chornesky were looking to team up on making a film together. He liked speed and movement and she had produced several films about women with untold stories. A movie about women truckers was just a natural progression, said Chornesky.

“Wow, this country depends on these trucks and you see them 24-7. But when you think of trucking you don’t always think of women truckers. But I did some research I saw there were more women in trucking in terms of numbers but the percentages weren’t so large,” Stainoff said. “We weren’t interested in a stereotype; we started contacting companies and found many interesting women [drivers].”

“Basically,” he said, “we want to shine the spotlight on trucking and put it into the mind of the general public; they’ve [truckers] been overlooked but everything comes by truck. If they all sat down, this country would be at a stand-still.”

The way Stainoff and Chornesky see it, women truckers are American folk heroes in that they have heeded “the call of the road that speaks to their independent spirit.”

Jackie, a former actress, has been an over-the-road driver for five years and is an aspiring inventor. She says in the film that truckers are “nice people.” They’re working hard to make a living like anyone else only “they don’t go home at night.”

Another trucker in the film is Patsy, a flatbedder who stands a little over 5 feet tall. She’s Belgian by birth and loves being an owner-operator in the U.S., which she calls “the land of freedom.” A determined businesswoman, she looks forward to buying more trucks and having her own small fleet.

Then there’s Mercy, a self-described “little chick,” who says in the moving business she has to do twice the work to be taken seriously.

Each woman’s story is different, but the open road ties them all together.

The film is artfully crafted, capturing the beauty of each woman and the beauty of America as seen from the cab of a big rig.

It can be purchased by going to the Web site, (click here) and by fall is expected to be in Roady Truck Stops.