Divided neatly into three sections (“House,” “Homestead,” and “Community”), Crystal Kayiza’s poetic group portrait of the titular North Carolina county goes deeper that a standard journalistic account of racialized poverty to show, with the patience and sensitivity of a seasoned auteur, an African American population thriving — emotionally if not economically — in their rural surroundings and mutual support for one another. The fact that this up-and-coming filmmaker, trained in documentary production at Ithaca College and committed to social justice from a young age, is just beginning her career makes the technical mastery and artistic vision of Edgecombe even more noteworthy.
Written by David Scott Diffrient