Hi there, podcast listeners. It's Ann.

This isn't a place for just anybody.

I want to say you have to fit in to be here, but you have to enjoy this style of living to

accept it, to become part of the Rivertown, to become part of what goes on here.

You know, as journalists, we're all trying to do a better job these days of hearing the voices

of people from parts of the country that often seem forgotten.

In this case, the Mississippi Rivertown of Hannibal, Missouri, which is documented in the new film

drifting towards the Crescent.

I'm sure everybody in here hunts and fishes.

There's not a person in here probably that isn't wielding a gun or maybe has one in their

vehicle.

It's hunt, fish, drink, fight.

It's a river town. It's crazy.

Things get crazy down here.

But I've been doing this long enough to know that you can't always capture someone perfectly

just by shoving a microphone in their face.

There's something like the journalistic equivalent

of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle that applies.

When you set out to observe something or someone,

just the act of being there,

your physical presence as an observer,

changes things.

...