coolcleveland.com
Pike County is in the south-central tip of Ohio, deep in rural Appalachia. The almost all white county of about 27,000 people mixes beautiful scenery with high poverty. And it’s moved strongly to the right in recent decades: Obama lost it by one vote (!) in 2012, but Trump won it in three increasingly large landslides. It became nationally known for a gruesome mass murder in 2016 when eight members of an extended family were killed; an ex-boyfriend of one of the victims and father of her daughter pleaded guilty and was convicted along with three of his family members. The story attracted widespread fascination and speculation, particularly before the killers were discovered.
Cleveland-based documentary filmmaker was attracted to Pike County by the story’s sordid fascination, planning to document its impact on the community. But instead she found that the community itself was a rich lode of stories of people coping with living in a place that prosperity abandoned and what it’s like to grow up there. The result was her 2025 film, This Is Pike County, which she made while living in a cheap motel featured in the film. more …
by Andrew Shearer
Athens Banner-Herald
The Athens Film Festival returns for its third year, showcasing over 110 independent films from more than 30 countries.
This year's event will feature 20 world premieres and 20 U.S. premieres across six downtown Athens venues.
The festival aims to serve the local community, offering opportunities to watch unique films and meet filmmakers.
The Athens Film Festival will host the Georgia premier of director Laura Paglin’s feature-length documentary “This is Pike County” at Flicker Theater & Bar in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, August 29, 2026 more …
by Joey Morona
cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque will present the Cleveland premiere of the documentary “This Is Pike County” on Thursday, Aug. 27. The 6:30 p.m. screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Laura Paglin.
The documentary chronicles Paglin’s visit to Pike County, Ohio in 2017. A year earlier, the rural community, about 70 miles south of Columbus, was the site of the murders of eight members of the Rhoden family. more …
by Nicole DeCriscio
Owen News
Laura Paglin first drove to Pike County, Ohio, because of a crime that had captured national attention.
She kept coming back because of the people.
Paglin shared that story with a Spencer audience last week following a screening of her documentary, This is Pike County, at the Historic Tivoli Theatre.
The film made its Owen County debut in late January during the inaugural Blue Box film festival. The festival, which was coordinated by Lex Barrett and Mandy Samick, coincided with inclement weather that prevented Paglin from being at the festival. At the Blue Box Film Festival, This is Pike County won best feature film and audience choice feature film. more …
Owens News
The Blue Box Film Festival (BBFF) and Owen County Theatre and Arts Alliance (OCTAA) are proud to announce a special encore screening of the award-winning documentary, This is Pike County, on Tuesday, June 23, at the Historic Tivoli Theatre in Spencer. Director Laura Paglin will be in attendance for Q&A after the screening.
This is Pike County had its Indiana premiere at the inaugural Blue Box Film Festival in January 2026, where it took home both the Best Feature Film and Audience Choice Feature Film awards.
This is Pike County is a gripping portrait of a rural Appalachian county in Ohio (a four-hour drive from Spencer), where mounting pressures, including an unsolved family murder, test a close-knit community. Between the temptation to give up and the urge to hold on, the film lingers on what it means to come of age in a place left behind. more …
Written by Nick Fiala
St George News
… Highlighting a third film, “This Is Pike County,” Zito said the documentary’s look at addiction and poverty serves as “a microcosm of the world we’re living in.”
“It's solid proof that we need more support for therapists and mental health professionals,” she said. “The director, Laura Paglin, has a great eye for knowing what to film and what characters are revealing. I was hooked at the very first scene.” more …
by Mark Lakatos
Take 2 Indie Review
Nestled in the East North Central region of the U.S., the township of Piketon has almost seen it all – while by their own admission not being seen all that much themselves. It’s a place that keeps to itself, and as a result of that status, it struggles to let go of what it was. Maintaining that somewhat melancholic sentiment, Director Laura Paglin’s documentary This is Pike County is a hauntingly authentic look at life on the fringes of what many consider true Americana.
The documentary unravels organically, focusing on life in Piketon on a spectrum—the good, the bad, and the in-between. Drugs, suicide, religion, tradition, and togetherness birthed from neglect and trauma—it’s all there, and many share testimonials of their lives lived exclusively in the area. We get to see the remembrance honoring the so-called Cold War Veterans, only to discover that their existence is linked to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which was a key uranium enrichment facility during the arms race with the Soviet Union. more …
Film Review by Don Iannone
Letterboxd
This Is Pike County, directed by Laura Paglin and produced with Thomas Lennon, was shown at the 16th Annual Chagrin Documentary Film Festival in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where it stood out as a haunting and deeply human portrait of contemporary rural America.
In This Is Pike County, Paglin, who resides in nearby Cleveland Heights, turns her lens toward a corner of America that much of the nation has forgotten yet continues to define its conscience. Set in Pike County, Ohio, a rural Appalachian community marked by both pride and pain, the film begins with the 2016 murders of eight members of the Rhoden family. This tragedy once captured national headlines. But rather than sensationalize the crime or mine it for drama, Paglin does something far more profound: she listens. Out of silence, she draws a portrait of endurance and identity in a place where both are under siege. more …
by Stephanie Haney
WKSU Sound of Ideas
In 2016, the mass murder of eight members of the Rhoden family in Pike County caught national attention. It also got the attention of Northeast Ohio documentarian Laura Paglin, who made her way to the city of Piketon in 2017 to try to capture the story of what happened in those killings.
She spent two years getting to know the members of that community. While the murder has since been solved, Laura uncovered a bigger picture of the challenges facing what she calls a forgotten corner of Ohio. watch interview
KSUB, Cedar City
Cedar City is once again center stage in the world of independent cinema as the Red Rock Film Festival returned on Wednesday September 24th and runs through Saturday, September 27th. Now in its 19th year, the festival will be held at Frontier Homestead State Park, bringing filmmakers and movie lovers together for four days of screenings, panels, and special events.
Matt Marxteyn of the Red Rock Festival joined us on the Big Picture Morning Show and gave a bit of history of the festival. “It started in St. George. We would have an opening night in St. George, and the we began actually in Springdale. We began as a film series…in 2004.In 2007 we made it a film festival, and it’s been going ever since,” Marxteyn said. He said the festival features international films along with academy award winning features.
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Laura Paglin has had work shown on HBO and PBS. Her entry in the Red Rock Film Festival is This is Pike County, which Paglin says is, “a documentary about a close knit rural community that among many of the problems plagued by rural communities is also suffering from the grief of an unsolved mass family murder.” listen to interview