True/False Films

October Country
Dir. Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher; 2009; 83 min.
Thursday, Feb. 26 / 10:30PM / Little Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 1 / 6:30PM / Forrest

In person: directors Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher

Sneak preview. As the saying goes, families are like fudge: mostly sweet with a few nuts. Donal Mosher, with co-director Michael Palmieri, turns the camera on his own family in upstate New York. With ghostlike access, they introduce us to the tragic and painfully familiar stories: Daneal, a single mother fighting for the custody of her child; Don, the lone father figure, a Vietnam veteran coping with wartime nightmares and his estranged relationship with sister Denise, an outsider who spends her days in graveyards searching for spirits. Throughout the film, we're reminded that the problems this family faces — abusive fathers, runaway children, unrealistic dreamers — are cyclical events, bound to continue until someone (here the young and self-aware daughter Desi) can break the chain. Palmieri and Mosher's textured, thoughtful film about America's emotional diseases is haunting and exquisitely composed. (CB)