October Country

October Country

80 Minutes

Ilion, New York is a small town located in the Mohawk Valley. It is just to the east of the city of Utica and just off the New York State Thruway. It is the home of the Remington Arms Company, a gun manufacturer that employs many of the town's denizens. October Country is less a documentary than a living photo album of one year in the life of photographer Donal Mosher's family, who along with director Michael Palmieri, creates an evocative, lyrical film about the cycles of bad decisions, madness and the ghostly fingers of the Vietnam War that continues to affect his family.

The directors intersperse confessional interviews with family members with mournful footage of dying leaves, windy vistas and empty cemeteries. Ilion is a prime example of America falling apart at its seams, one of thousands of forgotten towns where listlessness, violence, big box stores like Wal-Mart and irresponsibility elbow out the time honored values very few people still cling onto.

Mosher quickly and efficiently introduces us to his family: among which are patriarch Don, an introvert still suffering from the affects of the Vietnam War, his estranged sister who takes numerous prescription drugs and talks with ghosts, Don's daughter and granddaughter, both of whom had babies way too young, the foster kid Chris who spends much of his time in a drugged-out haze and thieving from the Moshers. Only the young Desi seems to possess the wherewithal to escape the cycles of domestic violence and low self-esteem that plagues the family, but at only eight years old it is likely she too will be assigned the same fate once puberty sets in.

Even more telling than the interviews and interactions are the numerous close-ups of the tchochtkes the family collects. This accumulation of things, such as model unicorns, movable Halloween decorations, video game consoles and teddy bears appear to fill some emotional void and Mosher and Palmieri seem sympathetic to the family's pack rat mentality. Buying stuff satisfies a craving much easier than directly confronting the beast head-on.

But can one blame the Mosher family? We live in a society programmed to blow our paychecks on stuff to compensate. The existence of places like Wal-Mart, the cultural epicenter of Ilion, proves that we should be buying all kinds of stuff we don't need and to buy it in large quantities. October Country focuses on this working class quandary where want and need are mixed up, leading to useless spending and seeking out emotional satisfaction from abusive partners who don't have our best interests in mind.

If there is one thing to bemoan about October Country, it's that Donal Mosher never appears on-screen. Much like in Isaiah Zagar's In a Dream, Mosher also decides to remain off camera, providing perhaps an incomplete snapshot of his family, especially one with so few men. What is Donal's feeling towards his family? Is his decision to not interject himself in the proceedings a not-so-subtle proclamation that he has been able to transcend the familial quagmire while the others have not? It feels like a piece of the puzzle is missing, an essential component that should be involved rather than hiding behind the lens of his penetrating camera.

by David Harris