Having spent the majority of our lives in urban centres, our vision of small town America is more in line with Hollywood’s–a white pickect fence-lined haven for wholesome families, and hard workers to raise children and commit adultery. In Todd Field’s wrenching 2001 drama In The Bedroom, an illicit relationship in a small New England town leads to murder. In Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show a group of unfulfilled, frustrated townspeople hookup simply to pass the time. Then there’s the opposite end of the spectrum. It took Reese Witherspoon’s New York Socialite a return to her small town roots to become a better person in Sweet Home Alabama. So which is it? Is middle America replete with sexually frustrated misanthropes or congenial do-gooders whose perfectly aligned moral compasses are the key to our salvation?

Why don’t we let Bill and Turner Ross chime in, whose fly-on-the-wall documentary 45365 examines the many intricacies of Sidney, a small town in Ohio, and does so free of judgment. A Grand Jury Award winner at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, 45365 is available for streaming on various sites and should eventually find its way to a theatre near you. That is, if you live in a big city of course.

Check out the mesmerizing trailer for 45365 below.

- Daniel Barna