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By Tarence Ray

Stolen Fame: Willie Little’s Last Ride

Tarence Ray · May 26, 2016

Willie Little steals a police cruiser that was supposed to take him to jail and tears down a mountain highway into YouTube fame -- and a 40-year prison sentence. With the help of the car's dashboard camera, Little inadvertently creates a transfixing piece of cinema verité.

Review: ‘Stray Dog’

Tarence Ray · Sep 2, 2015

Ron “Stray Dog” Hall defies stereotypes in this slice-of-life documentary about a Vietnam veteran in rural Missouri created by Debra Granik, director of Winter’s Bone. It’s a quiet film of a compassionate warrior…

Arts and Culture

Review: Filmmaker Returns to Rural Roots

Tarence Ray · Mar 23, 2015

The creator of Pineapple Express and East Bound and Down got his start doing thoughtful indy projects about the rural South. In his most recent work, David Gordon Green revisits the people, places and problems of small-town America.

Film Review: ‘Rich Hill’

Tarence Ray · Mar 15, 2015

The poignant, prize-winning documentary looks deeply into the lives of three low-income, rural young people. While providing compelling and respectful snapshots of harsh rural poverty, the film fails to look beneath the economic symptoms to…

Media

Speak Your Piece: Double-Standard Standoff

Tarence Ray · Apr 20, 2014

When Cliven Bundy stood up to the Bureau of Land Management, the media circus -- and armed militia -- came to town, resulting in a peace gesture from the federal government. So what’s different in the case of two Shoshone sisters who…

Arts and Culture

‘Sometimes a Great Notion’: Sink or Swim

Tarence Ray · Mar 31, 2014

Fifty years after its publication, Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes a Great Notion still raises fundamental questions about life in rural America. Do we hang together or hang separately? And are those the only choices?