AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS 2009

OCTOBER COUNTRY is a haunting multi-generational story of a working-class family coping with poverty, teen pregnancy, foster care and the ineffable horrors of child molestation and war. A co-directing effort by filmmaker Michael Palmieri and photographer and writer Donal Mosher, it follows Donal's family in Herkimer, New York from one Halloween to the next, resulting in a beautifully crafted film remarkable for its intimacy, sensitivity and textured portrait of a family in crisis that has become all too familiar, if not representative, of America’s poor. Who are the Moshers? Don, the emotionally remote and dry-witted head of the family, returned from Vietnam plagued by nightmares about his dead friends and admits he’s an ass who takes a hard line on foolishness. Dottie, his intrepid and eternally optimistic wife, forms the emotional glue for the family. Don’s estranged sister, Denise, is a practicing witch and a lifelong outsider who takes us to the cemetery she frequents to meet her ghost friends. Don and Dottie’s daughter, Donna, grew up too fast, picked men who beat her and gave birth to Daneal as a teen. Daneal also had a teenage pregnancy with a man who beat her and is ill-equipped to care for the toddler now that they have divorced. Donna’s youngest daughter, Desi, is a clever girl who is aware of the bad examples set by her sister and mother. She just might avoid repeating their mistakes and thereby overcome her own tragic history. As the Mosher family does their best to grapple with their lives, circumstances and decisions, we root for them—especially Desi, who holds such promise.

Filmmaker Q&A

Introduce yourself:
Michael Palmieri began his directing career working with Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer of Doonesbury. He went on to create visual branding for the Sundance Channel in New York, utilizing a creative hybrid of digital stop motion and unique interviewing techniques that attracted the attention of the musical artist Beck, leading to two music videos with him and a three-year association with A Band Apart, Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender's film production company in Los Angeles. He went on to direct twenty music videos for the company, including award-winning videos for The Strokes, The Foo Fighters, The Bravery, Belle and Sebastian, and The New Pornographers. His commercial work includes spots for Converse, Coke, MAC Cosmetics, and ESPN. His most recent work includes collaborations with the visual artists Tauba Auerbach and Adrian Paci and the Academy award-winning documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman of Telling Pictures. He is also an adjunct professor of film and video at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. A wide selection of his work can be found at www.michaelpalmieri.com.

Donal Mosher is a photographer, writer, and musician. His photo documentary work is the basis for the film OCTOBER COUNTRY. Portions of the project have been shown in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco's SF Camerawork as well as online at the Marjorie Wood Gallery. His fiction and non-fiction writings have appeared in SF Camerawork, Instant City, Satellite, Frozen Tears and Still Blue, an anthology of working class writing. Donal is also a principle subject of Robert Arnold's documentary film KEY OF G which focuses on life and work with a severely disabled young man. Selections of his writings and photographic work can be found at donalmosher.com.

What inspired this film?   How did you find your subjects?
The film was inspired by Donal's photos and writing about his family.  Donal was born into the Mosher family so he didn't have to find them. Michael found Donal in an SF drag club. They shared an immediate affinity for Helen Levitt and Martin Parr and the rest was history. Michael was drawn to Donal's photo project and as a filmmaker was interested in seeing if it could be adapted into a film. Donal was also thinking that idea at around the same time. They agreed to embark on a collaborative journey together. Soon Michael found himself adopted by the Mosher family and filming their lives for a year. 

The concept of haunting as a social metaphor comes from Avery Gordon's book "Ghostly Matters - Haunting and the Sociological Imagination."

What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
The biggest challenge was cutting a year's worth of material in a way that combined intimate documentary footage with a musical and metaphoric approach. Michael's biggest challenge as a cinematographer was keeping up with an 11-year-old girl on Halloween night. The biggest surprise was the family's unflinching participation in the filming.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?
Chris Marker. The Maysles. Frederick Wiseman. Christopher Doyle.

What is your all time favorite documentary?
Mike and Donal both love SANS SOLEIL, HARLAN COUNTY USA, and SALESMAN. Donal also loves Jana Sevcikova's OLD BELIEVERS. Mike also loves Matt Mahurin's I LIKE KILLING FLIES and Jean Pierre Duret's BECAUSE WE WERE BORN.

What other projects are in the pipeline? 
We have two projects in the works. The 1st is a film tentatively titled LABRATS examining the US medical system through the lives of phase one test subjects – human beings who do drug tests for drug companies for a living. It's produced by Anish Savjani and Vincent Savino of filmscience. The second is a portrait of an 82-year-old gay man who has lived through four generations of changing male sexual identities.  

Why did you become a filmmaker?
Michael wanted to be a filmmaker after he saw Fellini's AMARCORD at the age of 13 and has pursued that dream in earnest his entire life. Donal became a filmmaker because he met Michael. Michael didn't give him a choice!

What are some of your creative influences?
In many ways music, literature, and still photography are as influential or more influential on our process as cinema.  

Did you go to film school?
Michael was a philosophy major at Berkeley and taught himself filmmaking. Donal went to the SF Art Institute, studying photography, cultural studies and film history.

What do you shoot on?
HD - HVX200.

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit?
Coming into contact with so many incredible documentary filmmakers who are pursuing the same goals and share so many of the same ideals and hopes for change in the world, and in filmmaking in general... and seeing people really connect with the Mosher family's story as if it were their own.

Why did you want to screen your film at SILVERDOCS?
It's the finest doc film festival in the USA, duh! And Sky Sitney is awesome and we love her.