{"id":1420,"date":"2015-01-05T11:25:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T11:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=6185"},"modified":"2023-09-06T15:47:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T22:47:11","slug":"american-dreaming-small-towns-through-the-movies","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/american-dreaming-small-towns-through-the-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"American Dreaming: Small Towns Through the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rich Hill<\/i><\/b><\/a> is a new example of a realistic portrayal of a small American town, through the eyes of three young residents and their struggling families, but the\u00a0fascination with (capital letters intended) Small Town America has been with us since the beginning of cinema. The documentary is an occasion to revisit how both documentaries and fictional features have portrayed this truly iconic locale on screen, in both authentic and not-so-authentic ways.<\/p>\n

While every film set in a small American town is a product and reflection of its era, a common thread in these films is the way our towns betray a vulnerability to economic depression.<\/p>\n

Although there are obviously far more to mention, here are a few key examples of some of the best portraits of small town life (and a couple of the not-so-great):<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Documentaries<\/b><\/p>\n

45365<\/i><\/b>: Of this film which premiered on PBS via Independent Lens<\/i>, I\u2019ll let the late, great Roger Ebert tell more: “The first shot tells us \u201845365 is the zip code of the town.\u2019 In this achingly beautiful film, that zip code belongs to Sidney, Ohio, a handsome town of about 20,000 residents. The brothers Bill and Turner Ross were born there perhaps 30 years ago. Of course they knew everybody in town, and when they spent seven months of 2007 filming its daily life, their presence must have eventually become commonplace. Their film evokes what Winesburg, Ohio<\/i> might have looked like as a documentary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harlan County USA<\/i><\/b><\/a>: By Barbara Kopple, one of America\u2019s most important documentarians, this seminal, Oscar-winning 1976 film about a violent coal miners\u2019 strike is still acutely relevant. And pair this with Kopple\u2019s Harlan County<\/i> follow-up American Dream<\/a>,<\/i><\/b> set in the Minnesota town of Austin in the mid-\u201980s during a tense strike by workers at the Hormel food plant. Dream\u00a0<\/em>captures more union in-fighting than\u00a0Harlan County<\/i>, and also won the Best Documentary Oscar.\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

(To make for an excellent fictional portion of a triple-feature with the Kopple docs, try John Sayles\u2019 outstanding Matewan<\/i><\/b><\/a>, which fictionalizes the story of a 1920 coal miners\u2019 strike in the titular West Virginia town.)<\/p>\n

Medora<\/i><\/b><\/a> (Independent Lens,<\/i> 2014) is an acute portrait of not only a tiny Indiana high school\u2019s struggling basketball team but of the struggling town itself, a place that\u2019s in some ways even lost its reason for being, but a diehard loyalty keeps some families there, rooting for their determined native sons. As Joe Leydon wrote in his Variety<\/i> review: \u201c[directors] Cohn and Rothbart evince equal measures of tactful restraint and empathetic curiosity as they tour Medora, Ind., a crumbling hamlet where the factories have shut down, Main Street is a string of shuttered stores, and the high-school basketball coach \u2014 who also works as a local cop \u2014 has a hard time convincing himself, much less his team, that the losing streak will ever end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small Town Gay Bar<\/i><\/b><\/a>
\nActually a look at two Southern towns, each of which with its own unique bar catering to a gay clientele. Here\u2019s an amusing introduction to the film featuring the director, Malcolm Ingram, and filmmaker Kevin Smith (who co-produced the film):<\/p>\n