Hale County, This Morning, This Evening (2018)

This is a very unusual documentary, and I am somewhat surprised that it beat out the Mr. Rogers documentary to get on the list of Oscar nominees. It is filmed a series of vignettes, almost.  They are connected by their location rather than because they are telling a linear story.  It is cinematically very interesting, having an almost photographic quality, coupling with muffled sounds as well as blaring ones.
Hale County is rural Alabama.  Greensboro is the biggest city and there are only 16,000 inhabitants.  It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale.  Like a lot of places in the south, the legacy of slavery remains all around.  The film focuses largely on Hale County's African American citizens and it feels like we are almost spying on their everyday life.  An unusual entry in this category, in my limited experience, but days later I am still trying to figure it out.