This Friday, February 12th marks the beginning of October Country’s Academy qualifying US theatrical run premiering at the IFC Center in NYC!
Don’t miss your opportunity to see this incredible work of art that has been called… “A Small and quiet masterpiece of transcendent filmmaking.” – Pamela Cohn, HAMMER TO NAIL, “An ingenious fusion of dream and reality… a small miracle.” and considered “The most beautifully realized film at this year’s Locarno Film Festival!” – Fabio Ferzetti, IL MASSAGGERO, Italy
October Country has been shown at festivals in over 10 countries including Silverdocs, Locarno, Amfest, Doc Lisboa, Doc Leipzig, Sheffield, Tromso, DocPoint and more! The film has also taken home 7 awards including two Cinema Eye Honors for Best Debut Feature and Best Musical Score, the 2009 SILVERDOCS Sterling Grand Jury Prize for Best US Documentary Feature, 2009 DocLisboa Best First Feature, Montreal RIDM Editing Prize and Special Jury Prize at Starz/Denver Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary!
October Country is a beautifully rendered portrait of a family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. Vibrant and intimate, this documentary closely examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence the lurks beneath the surface of American life.
“The intense intimacy of their honesty is staggering.”
Don’t miss this opportunity to see this remarkable film! For more information on the film and for a full listing of screenings, please visit http://www.octobercountryfilm.com!
October Country
Produced and Directed by: Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
Total Run Time: 1×80 Minutes
Every family has its ghosts. In a decaying industrial town on the Mohawk River in upstate New York, the Mosher family has more than most. Examining war, teen pregnancy, foster care, child abuse and molestation, this vibrant film captures a working class family struggling for stability. Richly photographed over a year from one Halloween to the next, October Country hums with textured visual metaphors, offering subtle motifs that illuminate each character. Four generations of the family are intimately revealed – from middle-aged grandparents locked in a marriage shadowed by military service, to an adolescent girl carrying the weight of a dreadful family secret, to an infant great-grandchild bounced from one family member to the other as her teen mother loses her ability to cope. But even as their situations unravel, the quiet strength and rich humor of each family member infuses the film with a fragile sense that good intentions may prevail.
“A central idea behind October Country is that people who cannot make their voices heard begin to feel like ghosts in their own lives. When this happens, they no longer feel they have the power to change their world. At a time when working class families find themselves disenfranchised and trapped by circumstances beyond their control, it is vitally important to give them a voice – one that brings an understanding of their lives and an opportunity for change to both the speaker and the audience. With this in mind, October Country was created to be both a universal story of family struggle and a socially conscious portrait of compelling, articulate individuals grappling with the forces that tear at their homes and relationships. By intimately following one family and allowing each member to reflect upon the problems that beset them, the film gives a personal voice to the issues of economic instability, domestic abuse, war trauma and sexual molestation.
As the Moshers do their best to confront their ghosts, the viewer confronts the broader issues that haunt working class lives. In a key scene, the witchy Denise stands in a cemetery, asking the unseen spirits, “Anybody want to talk to me? Can you tell me your name? Why do you stay here?” With October Country we wanted to give the Mosher family, and families like them who feel they are losing their place in the world, a chance to answer.”
– Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher