Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Name: Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Genre: Documentary
Released: September 14, 2018
Duration: 76 min
Rating: 85
Cast: Bert Williams, Daniel Collins, Latrenda 'Boosie' Ash, Quincy Bryant

2018

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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6.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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Hale County This Morning, This Evening

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Movie Details & Credits

Cinema Guild | Release Date: September 14, 2018 | Not Rated

Starring: Bert Williams, Daniel Collins, Latrenda 'Boosie' Ash, Quincy Bryant

Summary: An inspired and intimate portrait of a place and its people, Hale County This Morning, This Evening looks at the lives of Daniel Collins and Quincy Bryant, two young African American men from rural Hale County, Alabama, over the course of five years. Collins attends college in search of opportunity while Bryant becomes a father to anAn inspired and intimate portrait of a place and its people, Hale County This Morning, This Evening looks at the lives of Daniel Collins and Quincy Bryant, two young African American men from rural Hale County, Alabama, over the course of five years. Collins attends college in search of opportunity while Bryant becomes a father to an energetic son in an open-ended, poetic form that privileges the patiently observed interstices of their lives. The audience is invited to experience the mundane and monumental, birth and death, the quotidian and the sublime. These moments combine to communicate the region’s deep culture and provide glimpses of the complex ways the African American community’s collective image is integrated into America’s visual imagination. [Cinema Guild]… Expand

Director: RaMell Ross

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 76 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Glenn Kenny

Sep 13, 2018

The filmmaker’s poetic logic is inextricable from his consciousness of race and community, and of his function and potential as an artist grappling with his own circumstances and those of the people he’s depicting. “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” is not a long film, but it contains whole worlds. Read full review

100

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Jan 17, 2019

There is something visionary in this film. Read full review

100

Liam Lacey

Jan 24, 2019

Hale County, in the best sense, is the kind of film that asks more questions than it provides answers for. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Dec 5, 2018

A very particular sort of camera is at work in Hale County This Morning, This Evening. It peers from unconventional angles, lingers on images longer than they at first seem to deserve, and generally offers a perspective that is at once unremarkable, given the everyday subject matter, and revealing. Read full review

The Film Stage Daniel Schindel

Aug 29, 2018

Structurally, Hale County This Morning, This Evening does not do much to distinguish itself from other contemporary vérité documentaries which focus on quotidian details within a certain milieu. But even so, it still finds value in the unique incidents it captures. Read full review

David Lewis

Nov 18, 2018

Ross doesn’t gloss over the challenges facing the rural black county, but he finds a strong spirit there, even as the storm clouds hover. Read full review

Maria Garcia

Sep 13, 2018

Ross’ debut is scattershot, and lacking in the consistent purpose that articulates a filmmaker’s intent. Read full review

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User Reviews

HollywoodGlee

Nov 27, 2019

Hale County, This Morning, This Evening written, directed and produced by RaMell Ross, and Winner of a Special Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Ross tells the story of two African-American males, Daniel and Quincy, born in Hale County, Alabama, and the diverse paths theirHale County, This Morning, This Evening written, directed and produced by RaMell Ross, and Winner of a Special Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Ross tells the story of two African-American males, Daniel and Quincy, born in Hale County, Alabama, and the diverse paths their lives take. Hale County, This Morning, This Evening breaks the mold of a traditional documentary with its cinematic language and use of montage.

In the film's opening sequence, an immediate distrust of the camera is highlighted in a bold directorial choice regarding one of the film's subjects, Quincy, who works at a catfish plant to support his young family. "What is the orbit of your dreams?' sneaks into the lower left-hand corner of the film in a title, textual overlay. A transition is made revealing a small-town street lined with black folks sitting on their cars. Nice, non-diegetic music accompanies the camera as it glides down the street. Them folks are impervious to what is going on 'round them. Welcome to the Deep South where race is constructed and dreaming is an everyday part of existence. RaMell Ross is a philosopher, a photographer, a teacher a high-school basketball coach and now a filmmaker.

Ross utilizes his photography skills to great effect capturing simple, elegant moments that juxtapose other images like a grown man heaping a large truck tire onto a fire while off-screen voices provide commentary on the color and density of the smoke rising into the air. This telling scene was proceeded to by the title textual overlay, "What is done when all the cotton is picked?' Ross is not sugar-coating the environment. This type of call and response brilliantly forms the crux of the film's narrative. In another scene a young girl who hasn't learned to speak is being questioned by a semi-literate grown woman. First, she asked the young girl her name (though I couldn't comprehend the pronunciation of the word name). When the girl didn't reply she asked a few more time with each rendering becoming more intelligible only to be followed up with a "How old you are?"

As a basketball coach, Ross has access to the film's second primary character, Daniel, a strong, physically fit basketball player longing to escape the confines of his environment. Part of the beauty of Ross's cinematography and consequent cinematic language is the tight framing of Daniel as he practices his jump shot. While Daniel might be confined for now, this (basketball) is his way out, his way to freedom from confinement.

In my opinion, the film ended rather abruptly evoking a feeling of wanting something more and left me pondering what I had just experienced. The montage of imagery alone makes this film worth seeing. But Ross adds a deep, visceral element, coupled with philosophical interjections, that creates a work of art transcending the confines of the theatre. It begs to be experienced. The result is a highly compelling, experimental film seemingly influenced by Melvin Van Peebles' spawn of the Blaxploitation era, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. And, with a run time of a fast seventy-six minutes, it's one you don't want to miss! Highly recommended.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Brent_Marchant

Feb 1, 2019

This painfully slow, unfocused documentary about the lives of poor, Southern rural African-Americans will, regrettably, leave viewers waiting for the ending. Through the use of images, pretentious segment heading graphics and underdeveloped observations from the film's subjects alone, withThis painfully slow, unfocused documentary about the lives of poor, Southern rural African-Americans will, regrettably, leave viewers waiting for the ending. Through the use of images, pretentious segment heading graphics and underdeveloped observations from the film's subjects alone, with no voiceover narration, director RaMell Ross has attempted to let the material speak for itself, an approach not unlike what's seen in such cinematic tone poems as "Samsara." Unfortunately, the themes that the filmmaker claims he was trying to depict don't come through as clearly and pointedly as he contends. The approach is so "slice of life" that it's difficult to grasp what he was really aiming for. Overlong, woefully unedited sequences of incidental events, the inclusion of beautiful but basically pointless nature shots, excessive use of gimmicky time-lapse photography and a dearth of meaningful insights from the film's subjects combine to make for a production that leaves the audience wanting, as well as wondering what this film is truly supposed to be about. What's most disappointing, though, is that this offering has garnered an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature at the expense of other, better entrants -- truly unfortunate.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

marbie73

Feb 20, 2019

The most pointless documentary ever made.There is no story to speak of just a bunch of random shots spliced together that serve no useful purpose.The audience learns virtually nothing about the three people whose stories are being told.It is an outright travesty that this film was nominatedThe most pointless documentary ever made.There is no story to speak of just a bunch of random shots spliced together that serve no useful purpose.The audience learns virtually nothing about the three people whose stories are being told.It is an outright travesty that this film was nominated over such a great film as Won't You Be Neighbor.The best words to describe this movie are pretentious and meandering.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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