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Reviews
American Hollow (1999)
Life in the Appalacian Mountains
I lived in Pound Virginia for 4 years, and was married to a coal miners daughter for twenty years. I found the scenes in this Documentary to be not only an accurate reflection of the people I met there, but also typical of the people I met there. I was not raised there so as an outsider to the culture there perhaps my opinion is more unbiased. My wife was actually related to the Bowling family. There are a lot of them up there. I honor the people of the Appalacian. They are a culture unto themselves. There is nothing like them anywhere in the USA, or the world for that matter. You must live there to experience what I'm talking about. They are hard working, honest sensitive people with a strong family ethic, but with very few options. I also saw a lot of the family dysfunction depicted in the documentary caused by the extreme poverty there. I was fortunate to live there during the short burst of prosperity brought on by the first energy crisis in the late 70's, but the preceding years of poverty were still evident. Now with the energy crisis over, and technology taking over the coal mines things are worse there than ever.