Carter Country

Documentaries about Jimmy Carter usually keep the lens on the man. Carter Country turns it on Plains, Georgia, the town of about 700 that followed its native son through his unlikely two-year run to the White House in 1976. Director Bobby Buccellato, a Florida historian who earlier wrote a book on Carter and his hometown, shot the film entirely inside the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, and it premiered in the park's old Plains High School. Photographs by Ken Hawkins and never-before-seen 1976 campaign footage carry much of the story. So does a voice cast of more than 40, drawn heavily from Plains residents and Carter kin. Josh Carter speaks his grandfather's words, and Kim Carter Fuller voices her grandmother, Miss Lillian.