Award-winning documentary returns to Spencer with filmmaker Q&A

Laura Paglin first drove to Pike County, Ohio, because of a crime that had captured national attention.

She kept coming back because of the people.

Paglin shared that story with a Spencer audience last week following a screening of her documentary, This is Pike County, at the Historic Tivoli Theatre.

The film made its Owen County debut in late January during the inaugural Blue Box film festival. The festival, which was coordinated by Lex Barrett and Mandy Samick, coincided with inclement weather that prevented Paglin from being at the festival. At the Blue Box Film Festival, This is Pike County won best feature film and audience choice feature film.

The film details how a rural community in Appalachian Ohio is tested with several challenges – a former uranium plant being decommissioned and used to process toxic waste, addiction, poverty and an unsolved mass murder. "Between the temptation to give up and the urge to hold on, the film lingers on what it means to come of age in a place left behind," the description on Paglin's website reads.

Mitch Teplitsky, who connected Paglin to Barrett and Samick, kicked off a question and answer portion of the encore screening.

He began by asking her how Paglin, who is based in Cleveland, learned about Pike County, which is a 3.5 hour drive from her.

Paglin said she first heard of Pike County when it made national headlines for a mass murder of eight individuals in April 2016. Eight members of the Rhoden family were found shot to death, execution-style in four different locations across the county.

"I heard about this, but I figured, that's not really for me," Paglin said.

But a year later, she was talking with a friend, a crime writer, who said the murders still had not been solved.

So she decided to make the trip, and ended up going alone after her friend was unable to make it.

That trip happened to be during the annual Pike County Dogwood Festival that takes place in Piketon during the last full weekend of April.

Paglin didn't know what to expect or if people would even talk to her.

"People were actually pretty open about talking to me. I was sort of surprised. I wasn't sure how I would be received, being really a complete outsider," Paglin said. "I found ultimately I was attracted more to just the whole mood of the place."

She began visiting the area roughly once per month for two years to film, still not knowing if she had a documentary.

But she was drawn to the place and the people – from the Piketon Motel that resembles Bates Motel to a gentleman at the local diner talking about philosophy.

But she wasn't sure how to put things together and described her filming as random across two years.

"Ultimately, I kind of set a theme of the next generation, are they going to inherit all these problems – the environmental, the drugs, the lack of employment? What are these kids going to be like?" she said.

She still wasn't entirely sure if there was a film to be made. Paglin shot and edited the film herself, which she said was partly out of necessity but that it also kept it more intimate.

"[After] about a year, I kind of had to evaluate, and then I did decide to focus more on Lily, the little girl, because she's really the one who has the potential to grow and change," Paglin said.

Paglin said she has kept in touch with Lily, who was 11 when the film was being made and is now 19.

"It's been difficult because they kind of see me as Santa Claus, having money, and I mean, just compare it to their situation. I have to be kind of careful," Paglin said.

She said she offered to help Lily with her future.

"She's had so much dysfunction in her life," Paglin said. "But she's earnestly trying, and the family is in a better place than they were."

Paglin said the demeaning former stepfather depicted in the film is no longer part of the family, Lily's biological father earned sobriety and Lily enrolled herself in an online high school to finish school.

Paglin said the two talk several times a month and that Lily has seen the film.

"Lily said it made her kind of be more determined to make something of herself, so they kind of got to see themselves in perspective, and I think they're grateful for me to capture their lives," Paglin said.

One of the things that Paglin spoke to was the change in how documentaries are produced and then selected for distribution.

"It's been a struggle, and that's partly because even though I think this is my best film, and I've been at much more prestigious festivals like Sundance in the past, the market is so saturated now," Paglin said.

She has also produced and directed Unseen (2016), No Umbrella: Election Day in the City (2006) and The Nightowls of Coventry (2004).

Paglin said that the increase in the number of film programs and the increased access due to technology has made it more competitive.

"Festivals have kind of their tastes in certain films," she said.

She said what makes This is Pike County difficult is that it has no villains, the protagonist is a community, the story is layered and it's slow.

Paglin said she was surprised by how trusting and welcoming the community was to her.

"I think there are actually some similarities to here,where people in general are, maybe it's sort of a southern aspect with it, or Midwestern, where they kind of liked me asking questions and talking," she said. "I just became part of the community after a while. I mean, it's so small, and I'm living there, and I'm going to the diner."

She also highlighted the ability to falsely assume that nothing is going on in a small town and used Spencer as an example.

"I think you could go anywhere. It might look like if we drive through Spencer, oh there's just a little square; it's really quiet, but things happen," she said. "I think if you spend time in any place, there will be things if you listen."

Paglin also said that she likes showing her films in person.

"I really really love just showing it in person because, especially after making it for years and years, I just find there's nothing more rewarding as a filmmaker than to show it and have conversations," she said.