AMERICA UNDERCOVER: AMERICAN HOLLOW (TV)
Summary
One in this series of documentaries presented by HBO. This documentary chronicles one year in the life of a family deeply rooted in a remote area called Mudlick Hollow in Eastern Kentucky. The program consists of interviews with family members and scenes from their daily lives. The close-knit Bowling family, which counts over fifty members, has lived in Mudlick Hollow for seven generations, and is now headed by the sixty-eight-year-old matriarch Iree and her husband Bass. Together they have raised thirteen children, most of whom live within one hour of their parents. Iree begins by introducing her children and their families. Her sons Neil, Lanzo, and Edgar explain that they supplement their government checks with food from the land and money from selling the moss, ginseng, and blood root that grow locally. At home, Neil and Lanzo's wives, Wanda and Polly, state that they do most of the household work without running water or other modern conveniences. Iree praises Bass as a good husband, although his sons criticize his drinking habit and attest to the strength in their mother that allowed her to raise so many children under difficult circumstances. Iree then introduces her bedridden mother Oma Rice, of whom she has been taking care for several years. Iree recalls her father's brutality, which terrified her as a youth and scarred her mother. Next, the Bowlings suffer an upset when Edgar is arrested on charges of breaking and entering. The family struggles to come up with bail money, but ultimately Edgar is released and the charges dropped. Scenes follow in which Bass and his sons Edgar, Lanzo, Pat, and David discuss their experiences with the criminal-justice system.
Then controversy arises when Polly and Lanzo's teenage son Clint decides to marry his high-school sweetheart, Shirley Couch. Clint, Polly, and Wanda express their disgust with the lack of opportunity for youths in the area, and they wonder how Clint and Shirley will support themselves. David, who now resides in Cincinnati, recognizes Clint's desire to move beyond the limited opportunities in rural Kentucky and offers to help him start a new life with Shirley in Ohio. Although Clint is determined to marry and make a something of himself, his family is largely resigned to life in Mudlick Hollow; relatives expect that Clint's marriage will fail and that he will follow in his father and uncle's footsteps, remaining close to home. The stories of two other troubled members of the family follow. First, Iree introduces her sister Marion, who was brain damaged as a child and was later cowed in a relationship with her abusive husband. Iree's granddaughter Samantha Canada, who recently left her husband Joe, then talks about her own traumatic marriage, full of physical abuse. Life with the Bowlings is punctuated by the rituals of major holidays. Included are scenes from services at Iree's Pentecostal Holiness Church of God, a traditional Easter-egg hunt with her many grandchildren, an annual family reunion and picnic on Labor Day, and a local Halloween celebration complete with costumes and a haunted house. Other highlights include the following: Clint is tormented when Shirley repeatedly changes their wedding plans; Samantha divorces Joe and happily creates a new life for herself and her young daughters; Joe is arrested on murder charges in Georgia; Lanzo struggles with a dependence on Prozac; and Clint travels to Cincinnati to escape the economic depression of Mudlick Hollow. The program concludes with updates on the lives of various family members.
(This program contains adult-oriented language.)
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: November 29, 1999 Monday 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:29:25
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:59758
- GENRE: Public Affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Appalachia; Family - Kentucky; Rural conditions
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 1983-2006
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Sheila Nevins … Executive Producer
- Jacqueline Glover … Supervising Producer
- Rory Kennedy … Producer, Director
- Bill Frisell … Music by
- Adam Zucker … Music (Misc. Credits), Music Supervisor
- Bass Bowling
- Clint Bowling
- David Bowling
- Edgar Bowling
- Iree Bowling
- Lanzo Bowling
- Neil Bowling
- Pat Bowling
- Polly Bowling
- Wanda Bowling
- Samantha Canada
- Joe Canada
- Shirley Couch
- Oma Rice