October Country
Documentary Competition
(USA, 2009, 80 mins)
HDCAM FR 23.98
World Premiere
Directed By: Michael Palmieri,
Donal Mosher
Executive Producer: Michael Palmieri
Producers: Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher
Cinematographer: Michael Palmieri
Editor: Michael Palmieri
Cast: The Mosher Family
Music: Danny Grody, Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri, Kenric Taylor
Beginning and ending with Halloween, this intimate documentary follows four generations of the Mosher family for a year as they attempt to break the cycles of hard luck and bad choices that afflict them. The pressing issues of one generation—an unplanned pregnancy, a custody battle, a bad relationship—stir up and reinforce long-ingrained patterns of the past. As they turn the camera on his family, Donal Mosher and his co-director Michael Palmieri place us in the middle of an unfolding drama that artfully manifests the complex ways families can sustain us even as they continue to inflict damage.
The Mosher’s small town in the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York is almost as much of a character as the family, adding rich texture to the film. You can almost smell the smoke lingering in cramped apartments and feel the blistering wind blowing dried leaves across the asphalt. Judicious use of home movies adds to the sense of the unfulfilled promise of a family living a life they don’t deserve even if they made it for themselves.
If you like this film, try these:
(Mexico , USA , 2008, 83mins)
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