Shiners Captures Owsley Students' Play Confronting Addiction and Poverty

Their lives. Their experiences. Their stories." That line frames Shiners: Voices from Owsley County, an 86-minute documentary that will make its statewide broadcast debut on Kentucky Educational Television (KET) on Sunday, Feb. 8 at noon and 8 p.m. The film follows Owsley County High School students as they write and perform a play about growing up in rural Appalachia, centering themes of drug addiction, parents going to jail, teen pregnancy, and being raised by grandparents.

Directed by Seth McClellan and produced by Bob Martin of Clear Creek Creative, Shiners grew out of more than a decade of community arts and youth media work in Owsley County. That long-term presence is visible on screen: students and teaching artists collaborating to turn difficult local realities into a theater production and, ultimately, a documentary that emphasizes resilience rather than caricature. "This film is about the transformational power of sharing our stories," Martin says, summarizing the project’s intent.

The documentary follows the students from Booneville to a Kentucky high school theater competition, and the soundtrack mixes original and traditional music to anchor the play in place. McClellan described his experience with the project bluntly: "The students in Owsley County inspired me, they're transforming their community without scapegoating or demonizing. That's the path forward."

Students’ voices drive the film. Callie Smallwood, a student who helped write the play and is now studying video production at Eastern Kentucky University, said, "Everyone wants a voice. I found mine." She added, "I stopped focusing on the cracks and started noticing the light coming through," and recalled how audiences outside Owsley recognized themselves in the story: "I remember standing in a new city and hearing someone say, 'That sounds like my town.' The connection this film has created is beyond life changing ... our small town is beginning to listen to its younger generation and real change is taking root."

Local advocates and collaborators have voiced similar reflections. Anne Shelby wrote that the students "wrote it about drug addiction and parents going to jail and getting pregnant and being raised by grandparents and about living in a place some people see as hopeless and inferior, a place to escape from as soon as you can," and added, "(But) credit ... goes to the folks who saw (the) light and created spaces and situations in which it could grow and shine. Wonderful things can happen when the right people get together."

Shiners has also found recognition beyond Owsley, winning Best Documentary honors at several independent festivals, including the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival at the University of North Alabama, and taking awards at festivals in Pottsville, Somerset and Munich. A packed Kentucky debut screening at the Cinemark Theater in Richmond was described as filled wall to wall, prompting pride and applause from audience members who saw their own communities reflected on screen.

For Booneville and Owsley County, the film’s KET broadcast is more than cultural recognition. It puts student-created work about addiction and poverty into living rooms across the state, centering youth perspectives in conversations about local needs and long-term recovery. The airing offers a chance for neighbors, teachers, and policymakers to hear those voices and consider how community-grown arts, sustained partnerships, and attentive listening can shape practical responses to hardship in eastern Kentucky.