Locals pile into an old American car as the group cycles through a village in the Sierra Maestra mountains

Cuba is bigger than you think, only slightly smaller than England, with a population of 11.2 million. The entire trip would cover around 1,200 miles, of which we would cycle 400 miles, with the rest made up by transfers in our mini bus. For the entire fortnight we would have one bus following us, ready to assist with punctures or tired legs, while another bus (carrying our bags) would race on to the first checkpoint and the driver would start chopping up pineapple, papaya and guava for snacks. On the bus transfers our guide Lazaro De La Maza, a 30-year-old Cuban, talked proudly about the island and its history and answered our increasingly discourteous questions. How much is the average monthly wage? (10-20 CUCs about 6-12). How much do you get paid? (18 CUCs).

The biggest mental challenge was getting used to a communist country. The hotels are state owned. The restaurants are mostly state owned (although this is changing). The banks are state owned. We would pass something and I would ask Laz, is this owned by the government? He would nod wearily. Even Laz was an employee of the state. Although our group holiday was booked through Exodus, a UK-based travel company, on the ground it was run by Cubana, a state-owned travel company. Despite this Laz was startlingly honest, explaining the quirks and idiosyncrasies of his country. (Showing us his ID cards Cubans must carry three at all times we smirked at the picture of our normally Lycra-clad guide in a suit and tie. I dont actually own a suit, but they can Photoshop one on for you, he said. In a cafe in Havana, I saw a smartly dressed woman being asked for her ID by a policeman. When she didnt have it she was led away.)

I had been warned about the food. While the Cuban embassys website promised eating in Cuba is an exciting and rich experience, Laz was more realistic. Youre not here to have a gastronomic journey, he said. It was true that in lots of state-run restaurants the food was overcooked and there were limited choices (fish, chicken or pork with rice and beans). But it wasnt as bad as I had been told; in some of the new private restaurants it was outstanding.

Spending six hours a day on a bicycle, I found myself continually wondering about the system of government. Apart from the lack of creativity in the kitchen Cubans suffered from having no free press, no free elections and limited chance for self-improvement. But the island has a world-class health system life expectancy is high at 78 years; education, including university, is free; and no one is starving thanks to government rations of rice, sugar, salt and oil. I came home to stories of one million people accessing food banks in Britain over Christmas.

Outside the bigger towns we noticed fewer and fewer cars until all that was left were sun-baked farmers whipping their skinny carthorses; their carts were made up from different sized wheels and patched together with spare planks. The fields were full of sugar cane, thick and high, a reminder of Cubas agricultural history. We stopped for a break at an old plantation that had a monument to the former slaves outside the crumbling mansion.

It only struck me on that third day that there was no advertising anywhere. The billboards had party slogans or quotes from Fidel or Che. (At the top of one particularly punishing hill a sign saying, siempre se puede mas You can always do more was galling.) The graffiti, instead of being counter culture, was about the revolution: CUBA LIBRE, VIVA FIDEL.

The life of the peasant farmers was apparently what changed most after the revolution. Castros agrarian reform laws sought to break up large landholdings and redistribute the land to the peasants who worked it, co-operatives and the state. Farmers apply for a plot of land and are obliged to sell 80 per cent of coffee and cocoa back to the government at a set price. The rest, along with meat, eggs and fruit, they can sell for a profit.

Later in the trip we went on a walking tour in the middle of the Sierra Maestra mountain range to a hamlet of farms. Roberto, an 85-year-old farmer with milky eyes and a shuffle proudly showed us his home. The living area was decorated with tiny china ornaments, and behind a curtain were two double beds and a single. We sat at a table with a bleached white cloth while his wife made coffee on a stove. Ricardo, a local guide, told us that Castro had brought electricity and running water to these remote villages. Before the revolution people like this had no life, now they have a farm, freedom and can make a profit legally. People here have a better life than those in the city.

It depended, it seemed, on which city. From the Bay of Pigs we cycled on to Cienfuegos, the industrial capital of the island and a rich-looking town. Unlike Havana the huge colonial buildings gleamed with fresh paint. Why was there this difference? Because the people organise collective restoration projects. The residents have pride here, Laz said.

See the article here:
Cycling through the revolutionary landscape of Cuba

Few remnants of the town's agricultural past remain in Greenfield Hill, which is dotted now with manicured lawns and high-end houses rather than farms and working fields.

Those reminders that do remain are visible in the northern section of town: The Greenfield Hill Grange Hall on Hillside Road and Greenfield Farm just around the corner on Congress Street. Sandwiched between the two is a ranch-style house at 1893 Hillside Road, and its owners are grateful for proximity to both agricultural amenities.

While grocery stores are not quite as far away as one might guess, the great advantage of living in this neighborhood is that fresh, seasonal produce, free-range eggs, artisan bread and other foods are easily accessible without having to travel more than a few footsteps. The Greenfield Hill Grange, one of the oldest in the nation, hosts a weekly farmers' market every Saturday in winter months, and the family-owned Greenfield Farm, the last operating produce farm in the town, has fresh produce available at its roadside stand generally from July through October.

Entrance to the 1.02-acre, largely level property is marked by stone columns topped with lanterns on the fieldstone wall that runs the length of the front property along the street. The stone wall is topped with white picket fencing. The paved driveway, lined in Belgian block, gently slopes to the three-car attached garage, and a slate path leads to the covered front entrance, which is punctuated by columns and sidelights.

The house was built in 1950 and underwent a complete renovation in 2000. It has 2,996 square feet of living space comprising one-level living with an open floor plan. The formal dining room is to the right of the foyer. It features Wainscoting on the lower walls, wallpaper on the upper portion, and chair rail. A double mahogany inlaid wood border in the oak floor frames the room.

A door provides access from the dining room into the eat-in section of the kitchen. This is really a separate breakfast room. It has a bay window wall, window seat, built-in desk area, and the same ceramic tile floor as the kitchen. Features in the kitchen include a granite-topped center island, granite counters and backsplash, double stainless steel sink, and custom cabinetry with glass-front doors. The center island has built-in drawers, cabinets and wine rack. Stainless steel appliances include a Kenmore four-burner range top, and GE Profile refrigerator, dishwasher and double wall ovens.

Off the kitchen is a mudroom with the same ceramic flooring, laundry room, office, access to the garage and a door to a small wood deck and the backyard. The laundry room has a deep utility sink, closet and cabinets.

The heart of the house is the family room on the opposite side of the kitchen. It has a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace with a hand-hewn beam mantle, a large bay window with a window seat, built-in bookshelves, and a wet bar area with granite counters, cabinets and beverage refrigerator. This room also features doors that flank the fireplace, both leading to a large wood deck at the center rear of the house.

The deck can also be accessed from the master bedroom suite. There are also French doors in the master that access the wrap around side, covered porch. The master bath has a white ceramic tile floor with an inlaid border of green marble and a double vanity with the same marble, shower and jetted tub.

Two other bedrooms share a Jack and Jill-style bath, and one of them has a door to the side porch.

Continue reading here:
On the market: Bucolic pleasures abound in Greenfield Hill ranch

Every week until the 86th Oscars on March 2, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter's lead awards analyst, Scott Feinberg, will post an updated "Feinberg Forecast," wherein he presents a summary of major developments since the last update that helped to shape his current opinions, and then lists his revised projections. For more about Feinberg and how he arrives at his projections, as well as an acronyms key, scroll to the bottom of this post.

The week ahead:

The week that was:

Without further ado, here is the forecast...

BEST PICTURE Nominees 1. 12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight, 10/18, R, trailer) PGA, HFPA, BFCA, AFI, BSFC, TIFF, SAG, DGA, IFP, BAFTA, FI, ACE, ADG, ASC, CDG 2. Gravity (Warner Bros., 10/4, PG-13, trailer) DGA, PGA, AFI, LAFCA (tie), HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA, ACE, ADG, ASC, CAS, VES 3. American Hustle (Sony, 12/13, TBA, trailer) SAG, AFI, NYFCC, DGA, PGA, HFPA, BFCA, WGA, BAFTA, ACE, ADG, CDG 4. The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount, 12/25, R, trailer) AFI, DGA, PGA, HFPA, BFCA, WGA, ACE, ADG 5. Philomena (The Weinstein Co., TBA, TBA, trailer) HFPA, BAFTA, FI, CDG 6. Captain Phillips (Sony, 10/11, PG-13, trailer) AFI, DGA, PGA, HFPA, BFCA, WGA, BAFTA, ACE, ADG, ASC, CAS, VES 7. Nebraska (Paramount, 11/22, R, trailer) AFI, PGA, HFPA, BFCA, WGA,FI, ACE, ASC, CDG 8. Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features, 11/1, R, trailer) SAG, PGA, BFCA, WGA, CDG 9. Her (Warner Bros., 12/18, TBA, trailer) AFI, NBR, LAFCA (tie), PGA, HFPA, BFCA, WGA, ACE, ADG, CDG

BEST DIRECTOR Nominees 1. Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) DGA, HFPA, BFCA, LAFCA, NYFCO, BAFTA 2. Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) NYFCC, BSFC, DGA, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA, FI 3. David O. Russell (American Hustle) DGA, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA 4. Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) DGA, BFCA, BAFTA 5. Alexander Payne (Nebraska)

BEST LEADING ACTOR Nominees 1. Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) SAG, HFPA, BFCA, IFP, HFA, FI 2. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) HFPA, BAFTA 3. Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) BSFC, NYFCO, SAG, HFPA, BFCA, IFP, BAFTA, FI 4. Bruce Dern (Nebraska) NBR, LAFCA, CAN, SAG, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA, FI 5. Christian Bale (American Hustle) HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA

BEST LEADING ACTRESS Nominees 1. Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) SAG, HFPA, BFCA, LAFCA (tie), NYFCC, NSFC, BSFC, NYFCO, IFP, BAFTA, FIBAFTA 2. Judi Dench (Philomena) SAG, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA 3. Amy Adams (American Hustle) SAG, HFPA, BAFTA 4. Sandra Bullock (Gravity) HFA, SAG, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA 5. Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) SAG, HFPA, BFCA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Projected Nominees 1. Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) SAG, HFPA, BFCA, LAFCA (tie), NYFCC, NYFCO, FI 2. Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) SAG, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA, FI 3. Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA 4. Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) 5. Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) SAG, HFPA, BFCA, BAFTA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Projected Nominees 1. Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) SAG, BFCA, LAFCA, NYFCO, HFPA, BAFTA, FI 2. Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) HFPA, NYFCC, NSFC, SAG, BFCA, BAFTA 3. June Squibb (Nebraska) BSFC, SAG, BFCA, HFPA, FI 4. Julia Roberts (August: Osage County) HFA, SAG, BFCA, HFPA, BAFTA 5. Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) HFPA, BAFTA, FI

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FEINBERG FORECAST: Oscars Landscape in the Home Stretch

January 31, 2014 - Pacific Coast League (PCL) Round Rock Express ROUND ROCK, Texas - The Round Rock Express and Ryan Sanders Sports Turf Services have finalized plans to rebuild the Oak Hill Youth Sports Association (OHYSA) baseball and softball fields that were left damaged by the severe flooding in October.

The Express, their Turf Services counterpart, along with help from Diamond Pro, Fenske Sand Gravel, the Houston Astros, Jack Allen's Kitchen, the Nolan Ryan Foundation, the Perfect Mound, Sunbelt Rentals, the Texas Rangers Foundation and Whittlesey Landscape Supplies have agreed to rebuild the field surfaces on seven fields at the complex: five baseball diamonds and two softball fields. The baseball fields will receive a new infield and sideline sod and all fields will receive new skinned clay areas.

Since the flooding, OHYSA has hosted several fundraisers throughout the community to cover the cost to repair the damaged fields, but was still short of the total needed.

"We're happy to be able to pull together with some of our partners and help bridge the fundraising gap to get these field repairs done for the players, coaches and families of Oak Hill," said Express CEO Reese Ryan.

Repairs will start Monday, February 3 and are expected to be done in time for the association's spring league.

The Express kicks off their 15th season on Thursday, April 3 against the Oklahoma City RedHawks. For more information on the Express, visit http://www.RoundRockExpress.com or call (512) 255-2255. Keep up with the Express on Facebook and Twitter !

Discuss this story on the Pacific Coast League message board... Digg this story Add to Del.icio.us

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Round Rock Express Finalizes Plans to Rebuild Oak Hill Fields

BERKELEY

In post-apocalyptic films featuring the fight-to-the-finish Thunderdome, an audience chants the arenas guiding principle, Two men enter, one man leaves. In many ways, the ongoing Thunderdome Debates initiated last fall at the University of California, Berkeleys College of Environmental Design (CED) borrow from the movies, but theres no steel cage. And if anyone is left behind, its only figuratively.

The Thunderdome Debates stake out their own special purposes and rules. Theres no blood, just verbal sparring by two leading minds in landscape architecture and environmental planning one man and one woman who face off in Wurster Hall in front of an audience comprised mostly of well-mannered students looking for more than the typical and too-often-sleepy expert presentations.

My take-over-the-world goal is to re-position Berkeley at the center of debates in this field, since theres broad interest in the big topics well discuss, quipped Kristina Hill, an associate professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning and Thunderdome Debates mastermind.

Kristina Hill

Moderator Kristina Hill to Julie Bargmann:

What pisses you off about starting with form instead of process?

Bargmann: Thats actually why I left sculpture. I was making objects, and gravitated more and more towards making installations it is just that kind of, you know, object-making. Objectification. Thats the thing that burns my ass

Kristina Hill to Walter Hood:

Are there aspects of all this process stuff that piss you off?

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Open for debate: teaching Thunderdome style

Landscape architect Len Zickler, a principal in the Spokane office of Tacoma-based AHBL Inc., says the company is seeing more requests to design environmentally friendly infrastructure to manage stormwater drainage.

He expects this approach, called low-impact development, to increase in demand.

Since 2010, he says the AHBL office has worked on four Spokane projects with significant environmental sustainability features. The latest design work is for an upcoming $2.5 million project to replace an asphalt median ditch between lanes on Country Homes Boulevard with a mile of buried pipe covered by soils and native plants to absorb much of the runoff from storms.

I believe in the next 10 years well see a significant shift toward the application of these technologies, says Zickler, who during his 23-year AHBL tenure has consulted with more than 40 cities and counties in Washington state on how to apply low-impact development techniques.

One problem we see at the outset is there arent many people familiar with the concepts, but expertise is on the rise, Zickler adds. Were seeing more contractors and developers who are getting more familiar with the concepts and asking for them. Fortunately, more individual engineers in Spokane are familiar with low-impact development, and more are beginning to embrace it.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines low-impact development, or green infrastructure, as building techniques that work environmentally to manage stormwater as close to its source as possible. Zickler says the most effective approach is distributing clusters of stormwater management techniques across a property.

The techniques do a much better job if they are smaller scale and distributed, he says.

Largely, the practices include installing drainage systems designed with specific plants and soils to absorb runoff more effectively. Other methods include installing rooftop gardens, pervious pavement areas that enable water to percolate into gravel underneath, and container collection systems to capture precipitation for eventual irrigation use. Additionally, properties can have clusters of small storm gardens with plants and soils to filter runoff, as well as plant-soil bioretention swales that are similar in function to traditional grassy swales.

While AHBL isnt involved in Greenstone Corp.s ongoing Kendall Yards mixed-use development northwest of downtown, Zickler applauds that project for applying a number of green infrastructure techniques, including a drainage system to handle stormwater with park-like open spaces.

He contends that consumers who want to live in such neighborhoods and cities with sustainable features also are affecting the trend here and in other parts of the state.

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Low-impact development said to be in higher demand

Food Stamp mistake costs Catawba Co. woman Food Stamp mistake costs Catawba Co. woman

Updated: Monday, January 27 2014 8:46 PM EST2014-01-28 01:46:08 GMT

Updated: Wednesday, January 29 2014 12:56 PM EST2014-01-29 17:56:25 GMT

Updated: Wednesday, January 29 2014 8:52 AM EST2014-01-29 13:52:43 GMT

Updated: Tuesday, January 28 2014 10:26 PM EST2014-01-29 03:26:25 GMT

Updated: Wednesday, January 29 2014 9:47 AM EST2014-01-29 14:47:17 GMT

Between January 24th and 26th this year, the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center will be full of the latest and greatest ideas for your home and your yard.

At the Greater Charlotte Home and Landscape Show you can learn how to spruce up your home and landscape yourself or you can find the perfect person to do it for you.

Appearing through the weekend are the stars of Animal Planet's show Tanked! - Wayde King and Brett Raymer. Fans of the show know their wild and massive fish tank projects.

Wayde and Brett visited WBTV News Saturday Morning to talk about the TV show and their appearance here in Concord.

Read the rest here:
Stars of "Tanked" to visit Home and Landscape show

Periods of lingering snow have formed a welcome blanket for shivering if drowsy flower buds this winter, and the snow has also provided a brilliant backdrop for big shrubs and small trees.

These woodies are at their least showy in deep winter, but they invite study of the textures and patterns of their bark along with the ornament of last years lingering pods and this years swelling buds. They catch the eye mostly, though, with their silhouettes in the landscape. The snow draws starker outlines.

Adrian Higgins

Adrian Higgins has been writing about the intersection of gardening and life for more than 25 years, and joined the Post in 1994. He is the author of several books, including the Washington Post Garden Book and Chanticleer, a Pleasure Garden.

Archive

I never tire of looking at a bottlebrush buckeye that sits on a hill about 30 feet from the kitchen window. It has grown in the past 20 years or more from a twig into a tall spreading shrub 15 feet high and 12 feet across. In leaf, it forms a fabulous screen of just the right scale. Now, it presents a pleasing tracery of charcoal gray branches.

It has reached maturity, stopped growing, for the most part, and rewarded patience with its little perfection. If I had been in a rush and planted a cedar or pine in its place, I would have been pleased for the first five years and fighting a giant thereafter. The world is full of trees that have outgrown their spaces and full of people trying to hack them back.

Hacking is bad, but pruning is good, or can be, if you know what youre doing. This is the season for pruning many of the deciduous woodies, but if you dont know why youre pruning or what youre pruning, then leave the plant alone. Nor should you assume that the guy who delivers your mulch knows how to prune.

If you prune in an arbitrary or excessive way, the plant can respond by growing a load of gangly and weak suckers water sprouts and you see this on badly pruned apple trees and crape myrtles.

When you get manic about pruning, you sometimes stop looking at the pleasing architecture of the plant and begin to see everything that is wrong: a rubbing branch, a stem growing inward, a water sprout, a broken twig. All these can be fixed through artful pruning. This month and next form a perfect period for this: The shrubs are dormant, they have yet to use energy in pushing new growth and, in their naked state, you can see the branch structure.

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Prune rosebushes in winter

NEWARK, N.J. Since entering the National Football League in April, former Steelton and Penn State standout Jordan Hill has adapted to life as a rookie. Long gone are the days of trekking through a snow-covered Happy Valley en route to classes or the football building. That part of his daily routine has since been replaced with a new landscape to observe in Seattle, coupled with meetings, film study and more meetings.

The Seattle Seahawks selected Hill in the third round of the NFL Draft and due to injuries and a stout group of defensive linemen ahead of him, this season has been as much of a learning experience as any. In Seattles final preseason game the young defensive tackle sustained a partially torn left biceps tendon that resulted in him missing six games. After that it was an injured right arm that set him back yet again.

Thats been the hardest thing, Hill said during Tuesdays Super Bowl Media Day. Just working through the injuries because Ive never really gone through anything like that, especially upper body. I havent had any problems like that and just trying to wrap my head around it that Ill be back.

Watching from the sidelines it was hard at first to swallow, but I understand that Ive got to get healthy.

Hill wasnt active for the teams NFC Championship Game against San Francisco and the result of his rookie season thus far is seven tackles and 1.5 sacks. But through it all the 6-foot-1, 303-pound lineman continues to learn and better understand what it means to be in the league and just how difficult it is for a team to have a shot at winning the Super Bowl.

The thought of having a chance to win a ring after being in the league for nearly 10 months is something Hill cant help but crack a smile when asked about. The Super Bowl experience thus far has been more than he said he ever imagined.

Its been crazy, he said. Just the type of support weve had just from New York and New Jersey people cheering for us and coming up and just wanting to know who we are and what were about and what team we play for. I think theyre more excited just to be representing the Super Bowl.

When we left Seattle there were at least like thousands of fans lined up on the streets and the highway just going to the airport. It was crazy.

Sunday evening at MetLife Stadium Hills parents and two sisters will all have a chance to see him and the Seattle Seahawks compete against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. Living across the country from most of his family and friends forced Hill to forge a new identity for himself, one where he continues to focus on the game thats gotten him thus far while acclimating to a new city hes learned to love. Add in new teammates who like to joke with the easygoing Hill and charge him with a meal every now and then and the 22-year-old is as content as ever.

Link:
Jordan Hill preps to close out rookie season with the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII

Beautiful, haunting elegies for American poverty have gradually developed into a subgenre of modern documentary filmmaking: "October Country" captured the struggles of a dysfunctional family in upstate New York, while "Oxyana" found echoes of desperation among drug-addled residents a West Virginian mining town, and the newly released "12 O'Clock Boys" presents a lyrical view of daring teen street bikers from low income regions of Baltimore.

Sibling directors Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palmero's "Rich Hill," which won the Sundance Film Festival's grand jury prize for documentary over the weekend, epitomizes the best and worst aspects of this non-fiction storytelling tendency: It's often overwhelming gorgeous and deeply sad in its depiction of three young boys fighting through their youth in the trenches of deep poverty in Rich Hill, Missouri (where the directors grew up). At the same time, it's a meandering portrait that never snaps into narrative focus with the stunning clarity of its images. But that same lack of cohesion reflects the conundrums facing its afflicted characters, enabling "Rich Hill" to share the pathos of their lives even when it doesn't fully gel.

The filmmakers, who also handle the camera work, quickly establish the ethereal qualities of the town during a transcendent opening sequence, which encapsulates the setting with sweeping gestures: We first see glimpses of boys shuffling about their cramped homes among the faster movements of the local elementary school and the static qualities of the city streets. As the music swells and a train rushes past, "Rich Hill" instantly conveys the rush of existence that bears down on the despondent lives at its center. There's an immediate sense of tension with the admission of one young neighborhood resident that the wealthier part of the population regards their community "with their noses 50 miles in the air"; for the rest of the movie, the boys are seen constantly struggling to determine their own confidence in the shadows of such lofty neighbors.

With its constant melancholic tone, which blend voiceovers and somber asides from its characters, "Rich Hill" often feels like a Terrence Malick movie that trades majestic spirituality for burgeoning teen angst. Revealing very few details about its subjects outside of their own admissions, it unfolds with a straightforward verite approach that makes its bleak reality fully immersive, though the perpetual shifting between a trio of focuses never obtains a satisfactory rhythm, but it does serve a point.

The directors swiftly establish each distinct personality: Andrew, a soft-spoken, levelheaded man with a lanky frame, helps his peripatetic father work various odd jobs with no real sense of direction; Appachey, a chain-smoking 13-year-old first seen lighting his cigarette with a toaster, coasts around town on a raggedy skateboard and deals with his increasingly complaisant mother; Harley, who suffers from the greatest emotional problems of the three, lives with his grandmother in the wake of his mother's arrest for a dark incident only explained in the movie's final third.

Though none of the trio share a scene together, the varying degrees of discomfort that define their lives form a larger overview of instability. Harley is the most frightening embodiment of neglected youth, his disorders left unmedicated and his anger management issues constantly driving him to reject authority figures. Turning his back on school day after day as a tense exchange with a school official makes clear he's a sad figure trapped by his delusions with no firm guide to help him stabilize his situation. Yet that same issue haunts Appachey, a scowling, compact child with the disposition of a disgruntled old man as a result of the neglect surrounding him. Only Andrew seems to have a generally healthy attitude about his life, though that doesn't help his situation.

"Rich Hill" mostly repeats its observations of these characters over the course of a few years, but it manages to convey one strong argument in the implication that the sins of the parents have been visited on their children. "I never had any dreams or hopes," Appachey's mother says, which at least partly explains her son's unearned confidence. The similarly aggressive Harley asserts that he "doesn't need an education, I can make it out there anyway," and has no firm parental figure to tell him otherwise. The ultimate tragedy for these boys is that they have plenty of drive but no direction.

"Rich Hill" constantly explores their situations through sputtering glimpses of individual moments. Though some dramatic exposition develops around Harley's destructive resistance to stay in school and Appachey's behavioral problems with other classmates, the movie generally cycles through their disarray with a perceptive eye for details. The free-roaming structure is salvaged by a persistent commitment to enabling the barren Missouri landscape and the claustrophobic interiors to the define the mood. There are moments when Tragos and Palermo run the risk of transforming their subjects into tools exploited for the sake of the movie's artistic vision, but the best part of "Rich Hill" is that its participants rise above the limitations of the material. "You're looking at me through some special lens or something," Harley says late in the proceedings, linking the subject's willingness to take control of his life with his ability to take control of the movie.

Criticwire Grade: B+

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Almost certain to receive distribution due to its Sundance prize, the movie isn't a natural fit for a large distributor given its fairly experimental approach. Commercial prospects are limited, though it could find a steady broadcast deal, but is most likely to do its primary business on VOD.

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Sundance Review: Documentary Grand Jury Prize Winner 'Rich Hill' Is a Beautiful Elegy For American Poverty We've Seen ...