
09 Jan 2015

The World Made Straight
In a rural Appalachian community haunted by the legacy of a Civil War massacre, a rebellious young man struggles to escape the violence that would bind him to the past.
Appalshop’s first dramatic film, In Ya Blood is the story of a prototypical young man from Appalachia in the summer after his senior year in high school. Randy, the protagonist, must make the difficult decision faced by many Appalachian youth‑‑whether to stay in the mountains or leave in search of a “better life.” The film follows Randy as he struggles with his alternatives of working in the coal mines or going off to college. Shot in black and white by filmmakers the same age as those portrayed in the film, In Ya Blood is highly effective as an insider’s look at the decisions faced by many teenagers as they consider their futures.

09 Jan 2015

In a rural Appalachian community haunted by the legacy of a Civil War massacre, a rebellious young man struggles to escape the violence that would bind him to the past.

09 Feb 2007

In seeking her own redemption from the one man of whom she is most afraid, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in 1850s Appalachia.

11 May 2017

Set in West Virginia during the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, a first-generation college student clashes with her family while investigating a bizarre issue with their water supply.

14 Oct 2005

A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter; and the wife of a preacher frets that a gay couple has moved in across the street. All of their lives will intersect as Loggerheads subtly draws out their secret losses and desires.

01 Aug 2009

Southern Gothic tale of a coal miner pushed to his limits for the love of his son.

18 Mar 2017

Meadow Bridge is a coming-of-age story that follows Darcy, a fourteen-year-old girl growing up in a small West Virginia town in the late 1990s. It's a story about growing up on the edge of poverty and possibility - about trying to reach out into the bigger world, while wrestling with where you're from.

19 Jan 2009

Deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, where every man owns a gun and a moonshine still, abides living legend Jesco White, "the dancing outlaw". As a boy Jesco was in and out of reform school and the insane asylum. To keep him out of trouble, his daddy D-Ray taught him the art of mountain dancing, a frenzied version of tap dancing to wild country banjo music. After his father's death, crazy Jesco dons his father's tap shoes and takes his show on the road.

21 Aug 2014

A determined housewife goes head-to-head with a $1 billion mining company after its negligent operation ruins her town's water supply.

29 Aug 2012

In 1931, the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Virginia, run a multipurpose backwoods establishment that hides their true business — bootlegging. Middle brother Forrest is the brain of the operation; older Howard is the brawn, and younger Jack, the lookout. Though the local police have taken bribes and left the brothers alone, a violent war erupts when a sadistic lawman from Chicago arrives and tries to shut down the Bondurants operation.

21 Mar 2025

Appalachia, 1946: a seamstress welcomes home her tailor husband to find they are not the team they were. Trying to stitch their old life back together, time and again it threatens to fall apart - with each of them pulling at the thread.

02 Sep 2015

After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appalachian Trail with one of his oldest friends.

03 Jul 2022

Bob Childress was the founder and builder of the famous "Rock Churches" of southwest Virginia, all established between 1919 and 1954. In 2022, Buford Jessup and his family set out to visit all seven of his great uncle's churches.
01 Jan 1993
Jack sets off to stop the North West Wind and discovers a world of danger and magic in this down-home, funky tale from the Appalachian mountains

11 Aug 2023

The cultural roots of coal continue to permeate the rituals of daily life in Appalachia even as its economic power wanes. The journey of a coal miner’s daughter exploring the region’s dreams and myths, untangling the pain and beauty, as her community sits on the brink of massive change.

08 Jul 2005

After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.

17 Feb 2024

RUNNING FOR THE MOUNTAINS digs into West Virginia's history of 'patriotic sacrifice,' unearthing veins of dark money and dirty politics. The film tracks grassroots candidates and ordinary citizens' attempts to save their land, water, homes, and communities - calling out the pro-extraction politicians enabling destruction, including Senator Joe Manchin and his likely replacement, coal baron Governor Jim Justice. Appalachia is the proverbial canary in a coal mine; pay attention or pay the price.

02 Aug 2019

A Pentecostal pastor, Lemuel Childs, and his believers handle venomous snakes to prove themselves before God. Lemuel’s daughter, Mara holds a secret that threatens to tear the church apart: her romantic past with a nonbeliever, Augie. As Mara’s wedding to a devoted follower looms, she must decide whether or not to trust the steely matriarch of their community, Hope, with her heart and life at stake.

19 May 2018

A documentary that examines the cultural stereotype of the people of Appalachia and how that has affected America's relationship with its rural communities.

13 Mar 2018

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.
01 Jan 1940
Documentary profiling an Appalachian farming family struggling to scrape out a living. Linking education and economic development, The Children Must Learn suggests that better schooling, especially in agricultural techniques, would bring improvement.