RFK Daughter Screens New Film on Rural Poor

The Kennedy family has held starring roles in the country's political dramas, but Rory Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy '48, has taken her family's political activism behind the camera.

Kennedy, a documentary filmmaker, paints a picture of grinding rural poverty in her latest film, "American Hollow," which she presented last night at the ARCO Forum.

The film follows a year in the life of the impoverished Bowling family of Appalachia.

"This is not just a family that considers itself to be victims. It is also a celebration of family, culture and spirit," Kennedy said. "Ultimately what this film is about is the indomitable human spirit that gets us through the challenges of life."

The film, which was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival over the summer, will air on HBO beginning Nov. 29 and continuing throughout the month of December.

In his introduction, Alan K. Simpson, director of the Institute of Politics and former Republican senator from Wyoming, praised Kennedy's work.

"She is a political activist and we cherish that--even though she is of the other faith," he quipped, referring to her family's Democratic heritage.

Kennedy said she was first drawn to the subject because of the trips her father and her uncle, John F. Kennedy '40, while campaigning for the 1960 election.

"He was really moved by what he saw," Kennedy said of her uncle, who is a former Crimson editor. "He saw families of eight living in dilapidated houses, and he saw an education that was profoundly lacking."

Because Kennedy realized that many of these problems still exist, she was motivated to investigate the effects of the changing welfare law on these rural communities.

"I fear what will happen after 2002 when many of these families can no longer receive welfare. I think that the family and the culture and the tradition will erode even more than they are now eroding," Kennedy said.

Iree Bowling, the central character of the film, is the matriarch of an extended family of 13 children, 30 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

The film opens with scenes of several of Iree's sons gathering moss and bloodroot and selling ginseng. The herbs are their only means of supporting themselves, aside from welfare payments.

"We tried to show what life is like from their perspective and to let viewers form their own judgements," Kennedy said.

Kennedy focused on three dramas that unfold over the course of the year: a son's time spent in jail after being falsely accused of trespassing, a daughter's attempts to remove herself from an abusive relationship and a grandson's roller-coaster relationship with his sometime-fiancee.

In the film, Iree echoed Kennedy's faith in tradition. "My grandmother quilted from sheep's wool, my mama quilted, now I quilt and so will my daughter," she said.

The film is told almost exclusively in the Bowlings' voices, with only section headings to narrate the action.

"I started by asking a lot of questions on welfare and poverty," Kennedy said. "But eventually I stopped asking the questions and allowed the characters to take us on the fantastic journey that is this film."

From her first film, "Women of Substance," to her current work, Kennedy has focused on social issues in her films.

She is currently working on a film on a Mississippi family that is struggling with mental illness, as well as a film on Hillary Rodham Clinton's race for the New York senate seat.