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'Rich Hill' directors focus on spurring conversations
Nevada Daily Mail
After the first screening of "Rich Hill" at a weekend Missouri film festival, directors Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos participated in a 20 minute question and answer session with a 1,200 member audience.
Filmgoers asked about Rich Hill's history, the featured families and what comes next. After the first wave of questions was asked, family members who were on screen minutes before came from back stage, launching a hundred more hands into the air.
Before long, theater attendants were signaling to wrap up the session, with countless hands still raised.
Additional screenings at Columbia's True/False film festival were exactly the same -- numerous questions, many unable to be asked due to time, about the film's impact.
But the two director's don't mind the back and forth of questions following every screening.
In front of the curtains, they're visibly happy to be connecting with people during conversations about the film. Back stage, the two said they're glad to be part of the conversations "Rich Hill" is initiating about poverty, mental health and family dynamics in rural Missouri.
The dialogues Palermo and Tragos are a part of aren't just with audiences. The filmmaking team has begun speaking with state organizations, such as the Missouri Department of Social Services and Division of Youth Services.
"A lot of the conversation coming out of it is that a lot of social services are siloed, instead of a bundled approach looking at the whole family -- not just one issue or one kid," Tragos said. "We've had a few brain-trust screenings' where we've brought non-profits together."
Palermo said those screenings allow members of service organizations to meet up and share ideas for improved services. At the last of these screenings, five state organizations met -- many for the first time.
"It was pretty wild that they were introducing themselves to each other. Many of these organizations, even though they work with the same families and work in Jefferson City, were saying hi for the first time," he said.
And online, residents of Rich Hill are initiating conversations about solutions to the issues the film displays.
"They are more interested, it seems, in talking about solutions for their town," Palermo said about the comments and conversations left on the film's Facebook page.
The director duo said these responses -- spurring conversations and reexamination of services and solutions -- are what they want the film to do.
"I personally don't want the film to be an advocacy film," Palermo said. "I don't want it to be something where we pinpoint the problem and feel good about it when we go home. We fought all the way through this because we didn't want it to be that film."
Tragos said that even though the film doesn't push viewers to participate, learn more or get involved, the results are just that.
"What we're finding is that even though we don't have a specific ask, or a 1-800 number at the end, organizations are responding. They're excited about it," she said. "It's an invitation to empathy."
Those responses began following "Rich Hill's" January premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize in the documentary division. This past weekend, it was shown four times at the True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Mo., and will screen at the Kansas City FilmFest in April.
Tragos said she hopes to sponsor a screening of the film in Nevada next month, but no plans have yet been set in stone.