Paul D. Schneider

Writer-director Paul D. Schneider has been a hobo, a railroad worker, a magazine editor, and a documentary writer/director/videographer. Born to working class parents in Hamilton, Ontario, he's been a lifelong railfan (train enthusiast) and is writing a book about his days hopping freights and working day-labor jobs while photographing trains in the Pacific Northwest and the South in the 1970s. Later, he worked as a editor for Trains Magazine and Railroads Illustrated Magazine, and wrote two books on railroading for Kalmbach Publishing Company. He lists Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" as two of his favorite books, pointing to the latter as "the cornerstone of my belief as an artist and a thinking person"). His interests also include psychology, spirituality, photography, and music (British Invasion and its indie music descendant, power pop). Schneider's favorite directors include (in alphabetical order) Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, David Mamet, Michael Mann, Sam Peckinpah, and Martin Scorcese.