14 Mar 2002
Spellbound
This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.
The Curse and the Jubilee
An intimate, arresting portrait of the cursed Appalachian mining town of Ivanhoe, Virginia. The film captures the town as it prepares for the annual Jubilee, a wild 4th of July celebration where families and neighbors let loose and triumph over daily hardships, industrial abandonment, and race.
Top Billed Cast
Similar movies
Spellbound Spellbound Sprout Wings and Fly 
Sprout Wings and Fly 01 Oct 1983
Sprout Wings and Fly
Set in the North Carolina Appalachians, Sprout Wings and Fly honors the fiddle playing of 82-year-old Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. Tommy was quirky, gregarious and generous, and this film shows him at his best, in fine fiddling form.
Vernon, Florida 
Vernon, Florida 08 Oct 1981
Vernon, Florida
Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.
It's Tough to Be a Bird 
It's Tough to Be a Bird 10 Dec 1969
It's Tough to Be a Bird
Part cartoon and part documentary, this film offers a humorous look at birds and the ways people perceive them.
Welcome to Leith 
Welcome to Leith 09 Sep 2015
Welcome to Leith
In September 2012, the tiny prairie town of Leith, North Dakota, sees its population of 24 grow by one. As the new resident's behavior becomes more threatening, tensions soar, and the residents desperately look for ways to expel their unwanted neighbor.
The Pipe 
The Pipe 03 Dec 2010
The Pipe
A compelling documentary film four years in the making, The Pipe tells the story of the small Rossport community which has taken on the might of Shell Oil and the Irish State. The discovery of gas off this remote coastal village has led to the most dramatic clash of cultures in modern Ireland. The rights of farmers over their fields, and of fishermen to their fishing grounds, has come in direct conflict with one of the world's most powerful oil companies. When the citizens look to their State to protect their rights, they find that the government has put Shell's right to lay a pipeline over their own.
Under the Stars 
Under the Stars 15 Oct 2022
Under the Stars
Paying tribute to some of America's only surviving drive-ins – and those who keep them running – this heartfelt documentary captures efforts to preserve these nostalgic theaters in small-towns across the country.
Cunnamulla 
Cunnamulla 14 Dec 2000
Cunnamulla
Cunnamulla, 800 kilometres west of Brisbane, is the end of the railway line. In the months leading up to a scorching Christmas in the bush, there's a lot more going on than the annual lizard race. Here, Aboriginal and white Australians live together but apart. Creativity struggles against indifference, eccentricity against conformity.
Only the Young 
Only the Young 01 May 2012
Only the Young
Kevin and Garrison are boyhood friends in a sleepy California suburb. They share a love of skateboarding, an evangelical Christian faith and a sense of confusion about romantic relationships.
Hillbilly 
Hillbilly 19 May 2018
Hillbilly
A documentary that examines the cultural stereotype of the people of Appalachia and how that has affected America's relationship with its rural communities.
God's Country 
God's Country 27 Nov 1985
God's Country
In 1979, Louis Malle films the thriving lives of a Minnesota farming community, but returns six years later to document its drastic economic decline, offering a poignant look at the impact of political changes.
American Hollow 
American Hollow 26 May 1999
American Hollow
This documentary follows the lives of the Bowling family as they fight to survive in dirt-poor Appalachia. Matriarch Iree has given birth to 13 children, but only two have left to seek better lives in Ohio while the rest have married and started their own impoverished families near home. Uneducated and unskilled, all are unemployed, and domestic violence and alcoholism pose serious problems. The filmmakers explore the family's relationships through interviews and footage of their daily lives.
Hotel Coolgardie 
Hotel Coolgardie 10 Jun 2016
Hotel Coolgardie
Fresh off the plane and in need of money, two Finnish backpackers find themselves the latest batch of “fresh meat” sent to work as barmaids at the only pub in a remote Australian mining town.
The Silent Village 
The Silent Village 30 Sep 1943
The Silent Village
The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.
Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie 
Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie 06 Apr 2021
Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie
Documentary about the making of ’Spring Break Zombie Massacre.’
The river people 
The river people 13 Apr 2013
The river people
Ernestina is a small town of 150 people whose peculiar inhabitants are deeply concerned by the acts of vandalism perpetrated by the people who go bathe in the river. They decide to hire private security. What is really going on in Ernestina? A suspenseful, humorous and endearing documentary about the dynamics of these small-town people.
In a Town This Size 
In a Town This Size 09 Mar 2011
In a Town This Size
In A Town This Size introduces an Oklahoma town and its long-suppressed tragedy of childhood sexual abuse. The abuser, a prominent and trusted former pediatrician is, through this film and for the first time, held accountable for the actions he cleverly perpetrated. Stories are told through poignant first-person interviews with his victims, their families and professionals. This film brings to viewers an unnerving familiarity with the lifelong devastation resulting from this kind of abuse. Covering events in the 1960s and 1970s and continuing into present times, these personal stories devastate, frustrate and inspire. In A Town This Size moves audiences to confront child sexual abuse as a primary social issue and presses for changes in state statutes of limitation.
Cinéma Laika 
Cinéma Laika 24 Jun 2023
Cinéma Laika
In the heart of the Finnish forest, the long-closed foundry of the little town of Karkkila has come back to life thanks to director Aki Kaurismäki and his creation of the town's first cinema. The peace and calm of the little town of Karkkila, nestled deep in the Finnish forest, is interrupted by unexpected sounds. In the abandoned foundry, noisy building work is taking place. Inside the building, Aki Kaurismäki is both builder and site manager of what is soon to become the Kino Laika cinema. The creation of the cinema is the talk of the town. In the factory still in activity, in a 1960s Cadillac, in a bikers' club, in the local pub, in the woods or in Aki Kaurismäki's former editing room, people start talking about cinema again.
Portraits and Dreams 
Portraits and Dreams 18 Jun 2020
Portraits and Dreams
Revisit photographs created by Kentucky school children in the 1970s and the place where their photos were made. Photographer and artist Wendy Ewald, who guided the students in making their visionary photographs, returns to Kentucky and learns how the lives and visions of her former students have changed.
Narrowsburg 
Narrowsburg 14 Sep 2019
Narrowsburg
The stranger-than-fiction story of a French film producer and her mafioso-turned-actor husband who attempt to turn a tiny town into the “Sundance of the East.”