“Appalachia is a wound and a joy and a poem. A knot of complication. But you cannot know a place without loving it and hating it and feeling everything in between.” Silas House
•
Writer, Appalachian studies scholar
APPALACHIAN
AWAKENING Documentarian Sally Rubin trains her lens on the shallow stereotypes of a region and ends up diving deeply into a whole new conversation. BY DENNIS ARP
Sally Rubin was determined to get to know Appalachia – to
Rubin, who co-directed “hillbilly” with Kentucky native Ashley
untie the knot and disentangle the misconceptions that attach
York, who now lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the USC
themselves to the region. But first she had to find her way there.
School of Cinematic Arts. “We always thought the film would
“Appalachia is a construction, a social and cultural invention,” says Chad Berry, a professor of Appalachian studies at Berea
nationally relevant.”
College in Kentucky. “Iowa is a construction, too. The
Toward the end of production, the filmmakers realized they
difference is that you know you’re in Iowa because there’s a
needed a throughline to link all of the story’s themes. So York,
sign there that says, ‘Welcome to Iowa.’ There’s no such sign
who like Rubin is committed to social justice and a feminist
with Appalachia.”
approach in her filmmaking, stepped before the cameras to
Berry is among those interviewed in Rubin’s new feature-length documentary “hillbilly.” In researching and shooting the film, Rubin not only found that perceptions of Appalachia are a timely subject for exploration. She learned that Appalachia itself is amorphous, evolving and more diverse than she, and certainly America, might ever have imagined. “At first, we set out to do a historical survey of the development of the hillbilly stereotype in film and TV,” says Rubin, an assistant professor of documentary film at Chapman University. “Then, several months in, we came to realize that if this film is going to be about what Appalachia isn’t, we have to tell what Appalachia is. That’s when we started including the alternative Appalachian perspective.” A journey of more than four years is bound to provide twists and turns along the way. This project had plenty, including one the filmmakers didn’t see coming. “The results of the (2016 presidential) election changed the entire context of the film and how we told the story,” said
6
be relevant, but suddenly it went from niche-relevant to
CHAPMAN FORWARD
become a character in the film. Weaved throughout are scenes in which York reconnects with her Appalachian family members who attended rallies and voted for President Trump. These
nuanced,
sometimes
tense
but
always
loving
conversations add intimacy and urgency to the film. In one scene, York visits her Granny Shelby in Jonesville, Ky. They trade hugs as they’re joined by several other family members who had voted for Barack Obama but now wear MAGA hats. York eases into the role of neutral interviewer as she probes their enthusiasm for Trump. “People from the mountains,” she hears, “really had no one to have our back before.” There’s a long pause while York nods awkwardly, and then the inevitable question: “Who’d you vote for?” She purses her lips and reveals that she voted for Hillary Clinton. “I must not have burped you girls just right,” her grandmother deadpans. “I should have held you upside down and patted you on your butt.”
