Rated: NR    Runtime: 80 mins.
Filmmakers Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher IN PERSON at the 7:00pm show Friday and Saturday!

October Country is a beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. A collaboration between filmmaker Michael Palmieri and photographer and family member Donal Mosher, this vibrant and penetrating documentary examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life.

Every family has its ghosts. The Mosher family has more than most. Shot over a year from one Halloween to the next, the film creates a stunning cinematic portrait of a family who are unique but also sadly representative of the struggles of America's working class. The film was created to be both a universal story of family struggle and a socially conscious portrait of compelling, articulate individuals grappling with the forces that tear at their homes and relationships.

Combining the access only available to a family member with an intimate visual style of a filmmaker encountering the family's dynamics for the first time, the film gives a deeply personal voice to the national issues of economic instability, domestic abuse, war trauma, and sexual molestation. As the Moshers do their best to confront their ghosts, we confront the broader issues that haunt us all in the continued struggle for the American Dream. A film by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher. US, 2009, Color, 80 mins.

Official Website

Watch the Trailer!

"Harrowing and hopeful. A powerful portrait of the American working poor and the dynamics that govern all families, regardless of economic class." - Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

"Fascinating. Probing. Sympathetic. Like a Joyce Carol Oates novel rendered as a documentary." -A.O. Scott, New York Times

"A beautiful evocation of a time and place and a loving but unflinching probing of the lives of Mosher's family in the course of a year." - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

"Five out of Five stars. Intimate yet larger-than-life, this masterpiece of the everyday shows you don’t need James Cameron’s toy box to make images pop from the screen, much less to see and embrace the world anew. 5 stars." - Kevin L. Lee, Time Out New York

"An hypnotic, impressionistic spectacle." - S. James Snyder, Artforum

"Stirring. Visually remarkable. Surveys with detached beauty and expressive melancholy all the other members of the working-class family. Evokes a troubled suburbia, teeming with ghosts, visible and not." - Michael Korevsky, Indiewire

WINNER
Silverdocs Grand Jury Prize
Best US Feature

WINNER
Maysles Award
Special Jury Prize
Starz/Denver Film Festival

WINNER
Best First Feature
DocLisboa Film Festival

NOMINATED
Independent Spirit Awards
Best Documentary

NOMINATED
Gotham Award
"Best Film Not Playing in a Theater Near You"

NOMINATED
Five 2010 Cinema Eye Awards including Best Nonfiction Feature