American Hollow

The documentary follows the Bowling family in Appalachia. They are fighting to survive in dirt poor country. Iree, the matriarch, gave birth to thirteen children. Two of them left for Ohio to look for better lives. The rest married near home and started families of their own. Their lives are spent in the same poverty. They have no schooling and no trade. All of them are out of work. There is violence and there is alcohol in those households. The film says so without dwelling on it. The camera goes inside the daily routine. The members of the family speak in their own words. The bond between the generations and the friction between them are both visible. The tension between leaving and staying is at the centre of the account. The ninety minute documentary watches the daily life of one family. It is an American production Rory Kennedy finished in 1999.