Rich Hill<\/i>, winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, goes inside the homes and lives of small town America, where kids confront heartbreaking choices, marginalized parents struggle to survive, and families cling to the promise of equal opportunity and a better life \u2014 someday. The film follows three teenage boys, Andrew, Harley, and Appachey, as they struggle with isolation, broken families, and lack of opportunity, providing an immersive and realistic picture of growing up poor in America.<\/p>\n
Rich Hill, Missouri, population 1393, is 70 miles south of Kansas City and 15 miles east of the Kansas border. Once a thriving mining town, Rich Hill\u2019s decline began when the coal was mined out shortly after World War II. Today, like many other small towns in America, it has fallen on hard times, as have the families who still call it home.<\/p>\n
First cousins Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo share a deep bond and affection for Rich Hill, the hometown of their parents. Despite its current bleak circumstances, they felt drawn to portray the daily challenges townspeople face, and to focus in particular on the lives of these three teenage boys. As they ride their skateboards and go to football practice, Andrew, Harley, and Appachey are like millions of other boys coming of age the world over. But faced with difficult circumstances \u2014 isolation, instability, and parental unemployment \u2014 adolescence can be a daily struggle just to survive. With no road map and all evidence to the contrary, they cling to the hope that even they can live the American dream.<\/p>\n
The film bears witness to the challenges facing the millions of American children living in rural poverty today, and reveals the sustaining power of family bonds. While there is sometimes shame in their circumstances, these children have immense pride in their families, however fractured they may be, because family means having a reason for being, and a place in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rich Hill <\/i>follows three teenage boys as they struggle with isolation, broken families, and lack of opportunity in their small Missouri town, providing an immersive and realistic picture of growing up poor in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1293],"class_list":["post-314","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-youth-and-family"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n