Made for HBO, this dispassionate documentary is a bitter chronicle of grinding poverty and illiteracy passed down from one generation to the next. Laura Lee Wallace, 62 — "Lalee" to her family — has lived her life in the West Tallahatchie region of Mississippi, where cotton has been king for generations and most people her age started picking it when they children. Lalee never learned to read, and most of her children (she had 11; eight are still living) are functionally illiterate. Of Lalee's 38 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, many live at least part-time in her battered trailer, without electricity or running water. She manages to feed them on h...
Released:
2001
Rated:
NR
Length:
88 mins