Nicole Riegel

In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying 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 by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of 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.

Coon and Blaze are two young brothers growing up in small town southern Ohio. Not only are they brothers, but they’re inseparable best friends. Their story is set against a rust belt town where jobs are disappearing, factories are closing and many young people are struggling. These are the children left behind, and while the world moves on, they must find a way to get by.

Seven vignettes explore the difference between fantasy and reality, memory and history, and the joy and agony of the human condition.

It follows a singer-songwriter in a downward spiral as she takes a last effort gig at a motorcycle rally in South Dakota where she meets Casey, a guitarist who walked away from his dream long ago.