Rock Castle Home, a documentary film

$20.00

Rock Castle Home, a documentary film by Charles D. Thompson, Jr.
Awards: Spirit of the Mountain Award, UPIKE Film Festival 2021; Official Selection: LONGLEAF Film Festival; 2021 Best Director Award: REAL to REAL Film Festival 2021
“If we don’t tell our story, someone else will … or maybe the story will be forgotten altogether. We refuse to let that happen.”
– Beverly Belcher Woody, Rock Castle descendant

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Description

In this award-winning film, director Charlie Thompson delves deep into the history of a 1930s Virginia mountain community displaced by the Blue Ridge Parkway. Through the words of community members, Rock Castle Home shows how their group has fought to preserve their stories in the face of political, economic, and natural forces that threaten to subsume them.
Through these stories, we reflect on the meaning of land ownership, local culture, family, place, and the not-so-empty wilderness. Along the way, we learn about the American Chestnut and the mountain agriculture that revolved around it; about hand-built cabins, grist mills, and distilling homemade whiskey. We also learn the fascinating story of how the Parkway was conceived and built in the middle of the Great Depression. This film is a vivid chronicle of one Blue Ridge hollow and its people. It is also the story of America writ large and the land we hold in common.
Director & Executive Producer Charles D. Thompson, Jr.