Bright Leaves (2003)

Documentaries are all the rage nowadays, but some deserve more of your time than others.  This one from film-maker Ross McElwee was right up my alley, since apart from presenting a good-natured approach to the tobacco industry in his home state of North Carolina, the doc has a movie-related sub-text.  On a visit home he meets a cousin who is a collector of film stills and reels and is introduced to the 1950 movie "Bright Leaf" starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal.  They convince themselves that the movie is the true story of their great-grandfather who was a tobacco pioneer, but robbed of his fortune and his place in history by the all-powerful Duke family.  Eventually McElwee discovers that the main character in the film was probably an amalgam of several historical figures, but not before he has investigated the legacy of tobacco on the State natives -- all of whom still seem to smoke and many of whom are dying from cancer.  But his is not a strident voice and this is not a muck-raking documentary; rather it is a gentle study of how one industry has impacted on an entire community and in fact the world.