Review | Rich Hill Film (Documentary)

Rich Hill is a documentary about rural poverty. It follows three boys, who live in Rich Hill, Missouri -- about 70 miles outside of Kansas City. The boys vary in age; Appachey is a middle schooler and Andrew and Harley are high schoolers. 

This documentary follows them for over a year, documenting the trials and tribulations they face. Appachey is a very discontent young boy, he appears to have lots of siblings and a mom who is overwhelmed. He often is alone, and states that he has no hope for his future. Andrew and his family move around a lot. During the duration of the film, they move three times. His mom has a "condition" and she is often taking sleeping pills and the film shows Andrew having to care for her. Harley's mom is in prison for attempting to kill her husband when it came out that he had raped Harley. Harley lives with his grandmother and is often truant from school.

We had a discussion after the viewing of the film, which we saw during Cinetopia in Detroit. The discussion was led by a professor of social work from university of michigan. After watching the film, I felt sad. Sad at the cycle these families are stuck in, sad at the system that fails them, sad for the children who feel so hopeless already. 

Our viewing partners appeared to be mostly urban residing, and placed a lot of the blame for these families situations on the parents and on "the system". They were also quick to point that at least these children were white, so they didn't have the additional difficultly of racial injustice.

While it is real easy to place blame on the parents, what is important to remember is that a lot of the resources that are available in urban areas, are not at the hands of people in rural areas. Services such as food banks, community centers, income based child care, housing assistance and shelters just aren't as present in rural areas. Not to mention, public transportation. I felt Iike a lot of assumptions were being made.

The film was heartbreaking, but very real. Poverty is NOT just present in an urban setting -- nor is racial injustice. Some of the poorest areas in our country are rural and mostly populated by minorities (thinking of the delta region in the south).