Filmmakers spent a year following the White family of West Virginia. A tight-knit clan of folks seemingly dominated by women where most of the family is either in jail, has been in jail or has died an early death due to violence of one type or another. None of them work, but they always have money. This is coal mining country. There are no futures for the Whites other than what they already know. Addictions seem to come and go. The whole family smokes pot, takes perscription pills and just about every other kind of substance abuse known to human kind. And yet they have children, celebrate birthdays, enjoy each other. It's a little like looking into a past that has never changed and will never change. One son and his family got out. He's the exception. Nobody goes to school. One sister managed to get through rehab so she could visit her new baby. But the faces and voices of the boys and girls are the faces and voices of their parents. The cycle won't be broken. This is their tradition and their way of life. It's not pretty, none of it is legal and all of it whispers of how we fail as a society to instill hope into the poorest pockets of the country. The Whites are on a wheel they will never get off of and instead of fighting against it, they revel in it. Scary stuff.
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