You think your relatives are nuts? Wait until you meet the Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, the familial focus of Julien Nitzberg’s latest documentary. Produced by Johnny Knoxville and the team behind Jackass, the film doesn't disappoint. Neither does this interview with Nitzberg, who holds nothing back about his time spent in Boone County, West Virginia.

 
What makes The Wonderful and Wild Whites of West Virginia a Tribeca Must-See?
 
Oh, man, these are fucked-up questions. Someone else should hype my film!

We made this documentary like a peek into a crime family, something like The Sopranos in a way. We treated it like a regular movie instead of a documentary, so it has all the energy of a feature. Too often, people who make docs feel like they have to treat their characters with a boring amount of seriousness. We tried to edit it—with music, etc.—like you would a gangster story, like Goodfellas or something.
 
What’s the craziest thing that happened while making the film?

Everyday something crazy or surprising happened with the Whites, whether it was picking someone up from prison and then watching that person go straight back to wildness, people snorting pills in front us every moment, or riding around while various Whites screamed death threats out the window. They were dealing drugs in front of us. They were pantsing each other constantly, so we saw everyone’s genitals.

And there were death threats?

We had about ten death threats from members of the family during the making of the film. The Gullets [!]—some half-siblings we didn’t interview—were offended they weren’t in the film. One—Jesco’s half-sister, who was in her mid-60s—threatened to come down from Cleveland with her rifle, which was named Josey Wales. (She had held a bar hostage with Josey Wales the year before.) When we eventually filmed in Cleveland, she got my cell phone number, and kept inviting me nicely over for an interview. I said I would try, and then we snuck out of town. I was never sure if it was a trap or not.
 
What are your hopes/fears/wishes regarding Tribeca?

I hope the movie does well. I hope a lot of people walk out disgusted, because it’s not like a regular documentary. It’s not condescending to the subject, but shows the Whites how they really are. Most of the time when you see docs, it seems like the filmmakers actually inhibit people or try to paint rosy pictures. We really captured this wild side of life that no one has ever shown before—a side of America that is a true America, which is an America that both the left and the right would never want you to see. The left would romanticize it, and the right would condemn it. I fear that certain people who watch it just won’t get the Whites, and will look down at them, and I think that would be really sad. This family is one of the last examples of what the original Americans were like—people who came to America to get the fuck away from government and society and live on their own, live how the fuck they want, and do what they want. And because of society encroaching on them, they can’t do what they want because society has trapped them in. 

But don’t they get money from the government? Disability, social security, etc.?

That’s the problem. They want to get left alone, but who’s going to say no to free money? If everyone else is jumping through the turnstiles, why put a token in? (I guess that’s a bad example now—aren’t there MetroCards?) If you’ve grown up with this whole culture of corruption—coal companies that pollute the rivers and live for today—why not? Ideally, others wouldn’t act that way, and the Whites wouldn’t either.

This family used to have to work hard, and they were cool with that. It was backbreaking, hard mountain work, and at the end of the day, they would party. But they didn't have the time to completely self-destruct. Then society built roads in [to these coal-mining communities] to make things better, but the coal companies just stole the coal, and the roads from Cleveland ended up bringing the drugs in. The society there is also corrupted—the doctors are the pharmacists. Much of the population is sedated and on pills, which stops them from getting angry about their fucked-up situation.

The term redneck comes from Boone County. The original rednecks were these wild, striking miners, characterized by a red scarf around their neck. That region used to be known for radical, political actions—as in [John Sayles'] Matewan—extreme, left-wing union actions. That whole movement has been destroyed by corruption and keeping people partying and sedated.

I was surprised that with all the drugs they do in the movie, they don’t seem to do meth. Why is that?

See The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia at Tribeca Cinemas May 5-11. Not in NYC? Watch it On Demand!

Nitzberg Outtakes: