(Note: This episode was originally released in 2020. I unpublished it and then republished it in 2024.) In this episode, I talk about RaMell Ross's 2018 documentary, "Hale County This Morning, This Evening." In 2009, RaMell Ross moved to Hale County in Alabama to teach photography and coach basketball. While living there, he started to film the people around him. He recorded over 1300 hours of footage. From that material, he culled and mined images that are startling, poetic, and beautiful--images that bear witness to the complexities and struggles of black life in the rural South. Through the documentary, we are introduced to two men: Quincy Bryant and Daniel Collins. As the film unfolds, we come to know their dreams, their hardships, and the world they live in--a world of basketball, catfish plants, friends, sunsets, storm clouds, rain, and all the details that make up their ordinary lives. This is a contemplative, lyrical, and unforgettable documentary. There are spoilers in this episode.
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Original logo by Dhiyanah Hassan
Full Show Notes:
- My episode on Barry Jenkins's Moonlight
- My episode on Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust
- My episode on Kathleen Collins's Losing Ground
- Cane River
- Eve's Bayou
- Pariah
- Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
- My episode on Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life
- William Christenberry
- Chantal Akerman's South
- Two Towns of Jasper
- I Am One of You Forever by Fred Chappell
All My Sources:
- "Filming the Black Belt: An Interview with RaMell Ross" (Dissent Magazine)
- "Sundance Interview: RaMell Ross" (Film Comment)
- "The God of the Camera is a Coloniser: An Interview with RaMell Ross" (Senses of Cinema)
- "The Whole Ocean: RaMell Ross on Hale County This Morning, This Evening" (RogerEbert.com)
- "Visionary Documentary Director RaMell Ross on the Beauty of Hale County" (Dazed Digital)
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