“You put a lens to folks not often seen, a voice to those we should take care of and listen to.”

Award-winning Ohio documentary ‘This is Pike County’ comes to the Wexner Center for the Arts

The Piketon Motel, featured in the documentary, THIS IS PIKE COUNTY.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Award-winning documentary, THIS IS PIKE COUNTY, directed by Cleveland filmmaker, Laura Paglin, will screen at the Wexner Center for the Arts at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 as part of the Cinema Columbus Film Festival. Paglin will attend the screening and participate in a Q&A following the film.

Filmed in Pike County, Ohio, the documentary follows a close-knit rural community facing mounting pressures, including an unsolved family murder, and looks at what it means to come of age in a place left behind.

Paglin first went to Pike County after the 2016 Rhoden family murders brought the area into the national spotlight. She expected to make a film about the aftermath of the murders but became more interested in the people she met and their day-to-day lives. To get closer to the community, Paglin stayed at the budget motel featured in the film.

One of the film’s principal subjects is Lilly, an 11-year-old who was living with her father on weekends at the motel. She is now 19, still lives in Piketon, and plans to come to the Wexner screening. It will be the first time she has seen the film with a public audience.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Thomas Lennon produced THIS IS PIKE COUNTY. Since premiering in 2025, the film has received several festival jury awards and has screened in 12 cities across the country.

James Faust, artistic director of the Dallas International Film Festival, praised the film’s approach to its subjects: “You put a lens to folks not often seen, a voice to those we should take care of and listen to.”

This press release was edited for style and clarity.