With each year, the number of films sent from the mid-Atlantic area for consideration by the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival grows. “This year there were 30 or 40,” said film festival Program Director Joe Bilancio. Some of the films are fictional and some are documentary.
One of the five or six regional films selected for showing this year is a documentary from the Appalachian coal country titled “Bonecrusher.” Mike Fountain, whose family splits its time between Lewes and Washington, D.C., directed the film.
The title figure of the documentary is a dynamic and wiry little man who cherishes his small mountainside farm, his family, and the friends and neighbors who share their lives in the mining communities of the Virginias. Fountain’s film shows the primarily gentle side of his main character as he goes about the modest days of his life. But as the character himself explains, the nickname that eventually stuck came about when he told a big bruiser of a man that if he messed with him any more he would crush every bone in his body. When he tells the story there is laughter, but with it little doubt that there would be, if necessary, no lack of bite behind the bark. It also bespeaks the toughness that comes from a career chiseling coal out of the mountains.
The film’s story centers on Bonecrusher and his son, Lucas. One is a retiree from the coal mines, the other is starting his career. It’s a tough decision, trading the sun-filled, ceilingless of fresh air above the Earth for the black and dusty confines below. But money’s hard to come by in the mountains, and coal mining is one of the few opportunities to make a decent amount. Despite the serious consequences and daily hazards of working in the mine environment – as manifested through Bonecrusher’s life and death – Lucas stays with mining. As if the bonds of blood aren’t strong enough, the mining fraternity draws the two men even closer.
Fountain’s film captures the stark contrasts of the mountains and the mines. The steady coming and goings of coal-filled trains through mountains’ beautiful passes and the men heading into and out of the mines remind viewers of the constancy of day-in and day-out living and the simple milestones of life, death and the celebrations in between.
The Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival opens many doors, which can economically broaden perspective and understanding of communities and lives beyond one’s own. Bonecrusher, with good dialogue, music, photography both symbolic and representational, and appreciation for the mundane details of life, does just that, with an uncontrived and refreshing sense of reality and truth.
“Bonecrusher“ will be shown during the Rehoboth Beach Film Festival from 6:05 p.m. to 7:35 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12.
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