Research Paper On Hunter Gatherer

Hunter Gatherer is Josh Locy's debut film, and stars Andre Royo (The Wire) as Ashley, a middle aged black man who has just returned home from prison. Ashley is a misguided romantic, who believes his life will be exactly the same upon his return, despite having made no effort to maintain his former relationships. After arriving home, Ashley soon learns that the love of his life and longterm girlfriend, Linda, has moved on from him after claiming he never wrote to her while in prison. With new friend, Jeremy, a kind yet simpleminded man, Ashley embarks on a plan to win Linda back, as well as make money. His plan is two fold, get old refrigerators, dispose of them for a profit and learn to write cursive.

Hunter Gatherer is at it’s heart a simple film about what it’s like to be a lower class African American. It shows a group of people simply trying to live their best life. For Ashley this means trying to make money, and learn to write in cursive, a skill he never had the chance to master. For Jeremy it means being a medical test subject, to earn enough money to keep his grandfather alive. While this reality isn’t always pretty, it is always truthful. It is a film about trying to be happy no matter what life has dealt you.
Josh Locy, who is a white man, directs Hunter Gatherer with a certain finesse.
The film stays respectful and honest when dealing with difficult subject matter, while also continuing to be fun and witty. You enjoy watching these characters, even when your heart wants to break for them. Each character is complete.Their struggles are believable, and their motivations real. Whether you have personally experienced their pain or not, everyone will be able to find something relatable in this
film.

Hunter Gatherer is an indie film, and definitely feels like it. The crew does a wonderful job, but the film does feel low budget. You can tell that it is filmed on location with minimal equipment and crew. While this isn't so much distracting, it does feel like any other indie film out there. But in someways there is a brilliance to the indie model. The low budget nature helps to immerse the audience even more in Ashley’s low income story. Just know that if you don’t like indies this isn’t the film for you.

While Hunter Gatherer does have it’s problems, it’s worth seeing. The story is fresh and extremely important. It’s a film that Donal Trump would hate, and that in its self makes it worthwhile. It shows Black America as it truly is, a place with real financial problems, but not the crime infested, violent place many people would like us to believe. See Hunter Gatherer because it’s important, but enjoy it because it’s fun and entertaining.