Culture
Athena Cinema presents free screening of ‘Holler’
< < Back toATHENS, Ohio — Tomorrow at 7 p.m. the Athena Cinema (20 South Court St.) will be showing the film “Holler” with the filmmaker (and Jackson, OH native) Nicole Riegel in attendance.
Riegel studied Film History, Theory & Criticism and Psychology at Wright State University and received her graduate studies M.F.A. at UCLA Film School. In 2020, her feature film “Holler” premiered at SXSW Film Festival and went on to win the Narrative Feature Award at 2020 The Athens International Film + Video Festival.
“Holler” screened at the at Deauville Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival, San Francisco Film Festival, Atlanta, Nashville, Netherlands and Estonia, among others. Holler received rave reviews and won Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch Award, National Board of Review Award and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Nicole has used Holler to help inspire students from Appalachia through collaborations with Wexner Center for the Arts and Appalshop.
About the film
In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are dying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories at night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost for an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.