The Last Hillbilly

Discovered as part of the Deauville American Film Festival, the documentary film The Last Hillbilly by Thomas Jenkoe, Diane-Sara Bouzgarrou draws a portrait of a corner of the United States where death is omnipresent, an area that was once welcoming and alive before men destroyed it and finally abandoned it. Sadly, the one drawn up by this excellent documentary film that shows the other side of the United States and especially how an American family continues to live in a desert area. The voice-over that accompanies this documentary film creates a real immersion.

This film is the portrait of a family settled in the heart of the Appalachians through the eyes and words of one of their own: Brian Ritchie, main character, voice over and above all witness of the past and an uncertain future.

The importance of watching documentaries such as The Last Hillbilly cannot be overemphasized in order to raise public awareness about environmental protection and, above all, to leave a trace of our current society in which the quest for profit at all costs too often leads to the destruction of our natural environment. The Last Hillbilly deserves to be discovered because it is similar to a real observation but also benefits from a real aesthetic research and an important work on the sound.

The Last Hillbilly benefits from the will of directors Thomas Jenkoe and Diane-Sara Bouzgarrou to show that the United States continues to encounter important concerns of integration in which only the big cities seem to have a future, the others are predestined to disappear and empty themselves little by little. It is a terrible constant of a country in decline that should really address these dead zones that have unfortunately become more and more numerous.

The Last Hillbilly
Written and directed by Thomas Jenkoe, Diane-Sara Bouzgarrou
Produced by Jean-Laurent Csinidis
Music by Jay Gambitt
Cinematography : Thomas Jenkoe
Edited by Théophile Gay-Mazas
Production companies : Film de Force Majeure
Distributed by New Story (France)
Release date : December 2020 (France)
Running time : 80mns

Seen on September 3rd 2020 (press screener)

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