"HOW MANY ROADS gives a special view on forty years of contemporary American history through the experiences of various fans of Bob Dylan. Dylan?s lyrics appear to have a sometimes funny, sometitmes dramatic, but always far-reaching impact on people?s lives and convictions.

This documentary is made up of 11 separate portraits of people whose lives, due to the influence of Dylan?s words, took a surprising or decisive turn. They seem to be very ordinary people: a teacher, an accountant, a housewife and a student. They are of various ages, religions and convictions. But they all have one thing in common: without Dylan they would be entirely different from what they now are. Each portrait is connected to a line in one of Dylan?s songs. The documentary is thus compiled like an album consisting of varying songs that nevertheless form a unity.

HOW MANY ROADS is a road movie through both todays? American landscape and the poetic landscape of Dylan?s songs."

Jos de Putter (1959) studied political science and literature, and worked several years as a film critic before he made his first documentary in 1993. IT?S BEEN A LOVELY DAY, about the last year of his parent?s work and life on their traditional farm, was hailed internationally as a film in the purest documentary tradition. One year later, SOLO, THE LAW OF THE FAVELA, focusing on the dreams of teenagers in the slums of Rio de Janeiro to become soccer stars, won the prestigious Joris Ivens Award at the Amsterdam Documentary Filmfestival. Many other awards followed for films as THE MAKING OF A NEW EMPIRE (1999, the Godfather-like story of a Chechen warlord), Dans, Grozny Dans (2002, following a tour of a Chechen children?s dance troupe) Brooklyn Stories and Alias Kurban Sa?d (2004, about five different families who claim to be the heirs of a mysterious writer). In 2005, de Putter was honored with a retrospective of all his films in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.