Filmmaker Statement

The piece was developed in response to the loss of a close family member who was dealing with issues around access to healthcare, the cyclical nature of poverty and generational mental illness. It’s a personal narrative examining my own “escape” via social mobility as I understand the privilege education and access have awarded me in adulthood. It’s also about that struggle to connect to a community I tried so hard to leave. Pottero uses a reflexive framework. It’s a folktale within a folktale featuring my family monster, a violent beast who suffers from a pretty serious case of constipation due to a disturbing anatomical abnormality. For some, our monsters stay with us as we grow into adults- waiting to feed on financial insecurities, depression, addiction and repression. This work is imperative to changing representation of Appalachia and to raise questions about our identities, the relationships to the locations we come from, and all those monsters waiting for us there.