The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010)

SO YOU THINK you have some crazy or outrageous people in your family?

Well, if you want to feel like your blood relatives maybe aren’t so bad – and perhaps feel better about yourself as well – come with me to Boone County, West Virginia…

A great documentary about one of the last true outlaw families in the USA. This documentary by (jackass) Johnny Knoxville and  Julien Nitzberg shows struggles of the White's family. You might know them from listening to HankIII's 2006 release "Straight to Hell" with the song "D Ray White which talks about the life of grand-dad of the White's family. A famous hillbilly tab dancer who unfortunately got shot like so many in his family tree...

Co-produced by Jackass’ Johnny Knoxville, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia follows the extended, rowdy White family – led by matriarch Mamie and her brother Jesco (who was the subject of his own documentary, The Dancing Outlaw, in 1991). For one year, director Julien Nitzberg follows White family members with names like Bertie Mae, Sue Bob, mother and son Bo and Derek (yep, Bo-Derek), Brandon Poe, Annie Mae, Mousie, Poney, and Little Man. Half of the family are in early graves, while the other half live for the moment – drinkin’, smokin', snortin’, and cussin’ their way through each day.

Shoot-outs, robberies, gas-huffing , drug dealing, pill popping, murders, and tap dancing - what do these all have in common? These are just a few of the parts of being a member of the Wild and Wonderful White Family. The legendary family is as known for their wild, excessive criminal ways as they are for their famous mountain dancing members, including Jesco White, the star of the cult classic documentary, Dancing Outlaw. Exploring both the comic and tragic sides of life on the other side of the law, this stylish, fast-paced family portrait exposes the powerful forces of corruption, poverty, and West Virginia's environmentally and culturally devastating coal mining culture that helped shape the White family, a dying breed of outlaws preserving a dying form of dance.

Website: wild and wonderful whites