Saw The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (thanks, Nina!) It was a documentary about the sprawling White family, a group of mostly women who are in and out of jail and rehab. The men of the family are all either young enough to still be in highschool, in jail, or dead. They are described as fierce, free, and independent although of course for folks who are so very free they do spend a lot of time under the thumb of state authority and of course they're mostly on welfare. Their only claim to fame is their long-dead patriarch who was incongruously famous for tap-dancing to country music. This comes up once or twice but mostly acts as a sort of hook to pull you into this family.
The film mostly follows the White family, lionizing them or allowing them to boastfully lionize themselves. The birth and subsequent confiscation of a baby serves as a frame for the film, although the Whites and exactly how very free they are is the true subject of this film. I kept thinking to myself that if I were born into this family, I would surely be dead by now. They are violent, addicted to drugs, and spend most of their time carrying out intricately interlocking schemes of revenge. They seemed like a southern sort of Addams Family; violent, intensely interested in spirituality, intense.
They frankly repulsed me. Make no mistake, this repulsion on my part is solely an indictment of me. They are human beings with addictions and vices the same as any of us. A younger version of me would have said that their way of life is dying out but now I'm not so sure. Their way of life is overtly hostile to my own. This window into their lives is interesting, but I am very glad they're stuck in Boone County, West Virginia.
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