SXSW Film Preview: World's Largest

Who hasn’t needed to get away from it all and spontaneously hit the open road with no plans, the top down, radio blasting, nowhere to be but…or, um okay, you’ve driven to grandma’s house for the holidays. But the point is, the countryside, with all its beauty, its pastoral charm, its…hey, what the hell is that, is that water tower painted like a watermelon?

Yes, the open road and the small towns on it have their own unique and mysterious allure—after all, who does work in that Dairy Queen and why did they choose to live so close to it? Every once in a while, you stumble across an even more puzzling mystery—who convinced these people to hitch their boomtown dreams to a giant hockey puck? Or weasel? Or killer bee? Not to be too Seinfeldian here, but who hasn’t wondered, “What’s the deal with that thing?”

Well, wonder no more. Childhood friends and filmmakers Elizabeth Donius and Amy Elliot spent 4 years visiting 14 states and over 60 civic monuments to answer that very question. What they reveal is a lot more than just quirky folks who love to make big statues. The details behind each piece of art is unique, but they all tell the same tragic story—of rural America being pushed aside, struggling to stay alive as more and more people migrate to the bigger cities, as they watch the agricultural industry upon which they have thrived for so long continue to dry up. How does a small town recover?

The result is an entertaining mix of comedy and poignant examination about main street America and what it could become. It points out that these small towns aren’t just overalls and thick accents; these are people who live in and love the America that so many of us have only ever seen at 70 mph. World's Largest helps us realize what we’ve been missing all this time.

World’s Largest is screening Friday, March 12th at 9:15 PM at Alamo South Lamar 2. It is also playing Wednesday March 17 at 11:00 AM at the Alamo Ritz 2, and Saturday March 20 at 11:00 AM at Alamo Lamar 3. For the full schedule, see my.SXSW or B-Side.