Putty Hill

Dying of a heroin overdose, 24-year-old Cory leaves his family and its suburban community in a state of resigned grief. Fractured by poverty and drug-related petty crime with all its social consequences, the community is united in a rare instant of shared memories, and dreams of a better life as it gathers for the funeral.

In a series of tranquil scenic fragments taking place on the eve of the funeral, Porterfield uses naturalistic documentary devices to picture the deceased through his social environment. Interviews with Cory’s family and friends where the interviewer remains a discarnate voice-over alternate with uncommented scenes documenting how life proceeds. Avoiding non-diegetic music and external lighting, Porterfield largely relies on improvisation, depicting the characters in a careful, intimate manner that time and again makes it hard to separate fiction from reality.

Seeing the kids hanging out at the half pipe or in their forest hideaway illustrates them as the film’s essential subject; they are playing themselves in a fictional narrative that takes place in the real scenery of their everyday life.