MICHAEL F. FOUNTAIN
USA,
2009, 72 minutes, Color In Person: Director Mike Fountain
"I’m not leaving this mountain," 25-year-old Lucas Chaffin tells director Michael F. Fountain’s camera, "this is home." "Home" is Hazel Mountain in Russell County, Virginia, 400 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., and Bonecrusher is the intimate, reverent, and absorbing story of the relationship between Lucas and his coalminer father, Luther Trenton "Bonecrusher" Chaffin. When Fountain picks up the Chaffin family story, in 2006, Luther is retired, given a gold watch after 25 years of service (his own daddy clocked 38 years underground, and his grandfather died in the mine). On the cusp of marriage and resolved to continue the family tradition against his father's wishes, Lucas struggles with his own sense of identity even as the Chaffins confront Luther's encroaching lung cancer. In these days of telecommuting and job uncertainty, there’s something profoundly inspiring about the Chaffins, and Fountain has perceptively captured this rural sense of family and tradition.—Eddie Cockrell
"I’m not leaving this mountain," 25-year-old Lucas Chaffin tells director Michael F. Fountain’s camera, "this is home." "Home" is Hazel Mountain in Russell County, Virginia, 400 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., and Bonecrusher is the intimate, reverent, and absorbing story of the relationship between Lucas and his coalminer father, Luther Trenton "Bonecrusher" Chaffin. When Fountain picks up the Chaffin family story, in 2006, Luther is retired, given a gold watch after 25 years of service (his own daddy clocked 38 years underground, and his grandfather died in the mine). On the cusp of marriage and resolved to continue the family tradition against his father's wishes, Lucas struggles with his own sense of identity even as the Chaffins confront Luther's encroaching lung cancer. In these days of telecommuting and job uncertainty, there’s something profoundly inspiring about the Chaffins, and Fountain has perceptively captured this rural sense of family and tradition.—Eddie Cockrell