About a dozen years ago, I crossed paths with documentarian Harrod Blank in the desert north of Reno, Nev., where he was making his second film about wildly decorated "art cars," many of which convene there every September for the Burning Man Festival.

It took him this long to finish it.

Blank has created three art cars, including one covered with hundreds of old cameras, and as he shows us in the eye-opening "Automorphosis," they can take their owners in unexpected directions.

Some art cars are simply rolling galleries for collected objects, like pennies or Pez dispensers. Some are conceptual creations, like a land yacht or a traveling drive-in theater. And some are statements, like a Virgin Mary made of license plates or a "Litter Bug" covered in debris.

But Blank tries to focus on stories of personal liberation, like a badly burned race-car driver whose massive air horns announce that he's happy to be alive.

Outwitting Madison Avenue, these free thinkers turn old cars into utterly unique emblems of identity. We meet metal-bending psychic Uri Geller, whose vintage Rolls Royce is festooned with spoons from luminaries like James Dean and Elvis Presley, and Dennis Woodruff, a long-struggling Hollywood actor whose seven cars function as mobile advertisements for his services.

Several St. Louisans are in the movie, including Paul Pagano, a World War II veteran whose car and clothing proclaim "God Bless America," and Jeff Lockheed, the paint-crazed proprietor of the Venice Cafe.

These beautiful cars raise unanswered questions about methodology, vandalism, safety and repair.

Fortunately, Blank will speak after all three of the local screenings, tonight through Sunday night at 7:30 in Moore Auditorium at Webster University. He also will lead a free filmmaking seminar Saturday at 1 p.m. Call 314-968-7487.