Big Moccasin

A fascinating documentary about a vanishing way of life on a stretch of Southwest Virginia in the Appalachian Valley, Big Moccasin focuses on four aging individuals with long memories of their isolated community in a town called Nickelsville. “Mouse,” “Polo,” Steve Burke, and Geraldine “Gerry” Frazier share stories of their youth, of good people they've known, of work and tradition and faith and old grudges. Married filmmakers Chelsea and Andrew Moynehan present this broad slice-of-Americana piece as a series of overlapping, intimate portraits, along the way revealing the local fabric of existence: mountain arts, growing tobacco, and blacksmithing, while also keeping company in smoky coffee houses, and building weekends around live music and church attendance. It doesn't take long to realize that most of the folks we see here are older, and that younger people do not much partake in traditional rituals. Yet Mouse and the others largely take this sad fact in good humor and/or a spirit of acceptance. Beautifully lensed with a sense of deep appreciation for the people and area, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P (T. Keogh)