By Jan Hamilton
A priest goes door-to-door in a low income (mostly SSI recipients), Oklahoma trailer park, listening to the inhabitants’ stories. They don’t exhibit a great deal of self-pity, but it seems that poverty and circumstance have set them upfor failure since birth. The priest also goes to a near-by prison to visit inmates, one man says he felt his fate in life was to be thrown down and stomped on.
One grossly overweight woman talks of beingso lonely as a teen that she would go to a house where she knew a group of teens would gang rape her. Another woman spoke of being so tired after work one day, that she came home, put her three kids to bed, only to awake later and find the house flooding, the kids in the tub, the baby dead.
All through these stories, the priest just listens, never judging. At forty two minutes long, this is categorized as a work in progress, it contains real and fictional stories and is moving and disturbing. The priest is played by Javier Bardem, who is powerful even when he doesn’t say a word. He seems to be struggling with something within himself. These stories are not without hope.
Credits:
Director: Eugene Richards
Executive Producer: Eugene Richards
Producer: Javier Bardem, Janine Altongy,
Nicolas Gonda
Cinematographer: Eugene Richards
Editor: Sam Richards
Principal Cast: Javier Bardem, Callie Eldred,
Tasia Moore, Joshua Collins, Adam Watters,
Samantha Jo Chism Watters, Melvin Kemp,
Melvin Cook, Kathryn Von Glahn, Eric Eudy
Additional Credits:
Camera Assistant: Julio Quintana,
Location Sound Recorder: Martin Pedersen,
Audio Engineer: Jim Clouse,
Sound Editor: Sam Richards,
Colorist: Seth Ricart