Published: February 24, 2009 12:41 pm      

PROFILE: Jesco’s family shares spotlight in new MTV film

"The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia"

MADISON, W.Va. — The long awaited, much anticipated MTV documentary about Jesco White and his equally dramatic family is almost complete, the producer says. Filmmakers are nearly finished with major editing after they wrapped up shooting in early January for the next chapter in the mountain dancer’s saga, with his family sharing more of the spotlight in this film.

The final task is to pare down the more than 500 hours of tape they’ve created during visits to Boone County over the past year or so to select the best moments for the hour-and-a-half documentary titled “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia,” a film directed by Julien Nitzberg, the person who first “discovered” Jesco 20 years ago while filming another documentary.

As the name hints toward more than just Jesco, don’t expect the film to be an updated version of “The Dancing Outlaw” — it will be far from that, Nitzberg and producer Storm Taylor say.

Both filmmakers have been associated with Jesco and the rest of the White family for several years and have gotten to know them pretty well.

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Taylor has previously created and starred in a regional program called “Yokel,” which was shown on Turner South. He traveled to communities far and wide to show how the local folk really live — mostly the fun and good, but also some of the less-than-perfect moments in their lives.

After finishing that program, Taylor said he had a goal. “Well, I sort of had the same affliction as about a million other people do: I was a fan of Jesco White. And so in finding what makes small towns click and their culture, I wanted to find out what made Jesco White Jesco (he takes a very long pause) — and I don’t know if that can be answered,” he chuckled.

“But, to think that this little PBS documentary (“The Dancing Outlaw”), done almost 20 years ago, that made its way across America by third-generation VCR tapes to attorneys and ditchdiggers and everything in between — marketing guys wish they could put that in their pocket. They want to know how that happened.

“And, it made this nice small documentary that was shot with a lot of care and concern for the family, I think. I think that’s why people bought in to Jesco. You know, you like him for a reason. And part of it is because of the movie and part of it’s because of Jesco. He’s one of the most charismatic people I know. He’s got the heart of a 5-year-old kid. Every time I’m around him, he’s always wanting to give me something,” the producer said sincerely. “Then, there’s the other side of Jesco — when he gets mad he gets mad. His ups are up; his downs are down.”

Taylor said he finally got his wish to create a new Jesco project, explaining that he talked to an old high school buddy, Johnny Knoxville of MTV’s “Jackass” fame, with whom he had worked in the past on some “Jackass” and “Wild Boyz” episodes. Both have a love for small towns and their people and saw the potential.

The producer explained, “Eventually, (Nitzberg) and Knoxville somehow crossed paths on a project and they started talking about culture and small towns, because Johnny Knoxville has pretty good love for small-town culture, too. ‘The Dancing Outlaw’ came up and he said, ‘You need to talk to my buddy Storm. He’s friends of the family now. He’s been working with them for a few years now.’

“And so Julien and I got together, and Julien said, ‘Do you want to do something?’ And I said, ‘I will do something if it’s done right. And, right’s a hard thing to say, but by my terms, I don’t want to poke fun. I want to try to shed some light on why the White family is the White family. It’s not a Jesco issue at this point. They’re the sum of all the parts. We could show all the family members and you sort of start seeing why Jesco’s Jesco without even seeing Jesco,” Taylor said.

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In explaining the goal of the film, Nitzberg said, “People have seen ‘The Dancing Outlaw’ story. I felt the rest of the family is just as interesting and I wanted to do a story about the rest of the family. Jesco is in it, but the rest of the family is the focus.”

The “rest of the family” includes Jesco’s sister, Mamie — an immensely popular character in “The Dancing Outlaw” and the person who introduced Nitzberg and Jesco — and other siblings, totaling 13 — a number Taylor said increased as filming was under way. “Today, I just found out there were 13 of them,” he laughed.

Nitzberg further explained the film’s focus, saying, “It’s a really different tone than ‘The Dancing Outlaw.’ There are fun parts and serious parts. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride. You really get to see the family. Everyone in the White family has four times more personality than normal people,” the director said, “And, in one week there’s as much drama as most people have in a year.”

Rather than capturing just an updated version of “The Dancing Outlaw,” Nitzberg said, “the movie goes a little more into seriousness. There are fun parts, hard parts, the reality and negative consequences of being outlaws ... They are an outlaw family. There are good parts of being outlaws and bad parts of being outlaws.”

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And he should know. Nitzberg is credited as being the first person to put Jesco on film, meeting the first time when he was 23 and Jesco was 31.

Taylor explained, “A lot of people give Jacob Young the credit, but Julien was doing a documentary on Hasil Adkins and when he was filming Hasil up at The Corner Pocket (a local watering hole at the time), there was a big fight. Mamie broke up the fight. So, he started talking to Mamie, and from what I understand, she said, ‘You need to meet my brother Jesco. He’s an entertainer.’ And Julien said, ‘OK.’

“So he met Jesco and went to his trailer and ended up with quite a few hours of footage of Jesco, pre-‘Dancing Outlaw,’” Taylor explained. “It’s pretty amazing to see a young Mamie and a young Jesco. It‘ll just blow your mind. It’s something else.” Nitzberg added that some of this footage will be included in the new documentary.

At the time, Nitzberg said he was affiliated with Appalshop, a “media collective” in Kentucky, who produced a lot of documentaries for PBS. They didn’t find the same fascination others did with Jesco, he said. Instead, they wanted to concentrate more on the positive side of Appalachia. “Hasil had already freaked them out and they weren’t interested in Jesco,” Nitzberg explained.

In the meantime, he worked on some other projects, such as “Strangest Dreams,” where Jacob Young — who ended up being the producer of “Dancing Outlaw” — was the sound man. Nitzberg sent Young the footage of Jesco and he loved it.

Nitzberg said he and Young discussed a possible project but he was “a kid with no money” and knew that by himself, there was “no way the movie would get made. But Young could.” So Nitzberg ended up being the sound man and associate producer of “The Dancing Outlaw.”

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In the newest story, the filmmakers said other than the White family, they also interviewed folks throughout the community — from the county sheriff, to preachers, to lawyers and friends — to get a well-rounded story about what the phenomenal fascination is with “The Wild and Wonderful Whites.”

With the latest Jesco project under his belt, Nitzberg said he’s unsure if other films will be upcoming, but said, “I could see coming back in 10 years to see what has happened.”

Nitzberg said major editing for the film is nearly finished and the documentary “will be submitted to film festivals first” to see how it’s received, adding that those involved in the editing process are already giving it good reviews. “Everyone’s pretty amazed,” Nitzberg said. He added that MTV will eventually release it on the home video market.

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To get a behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking and the filmmakers during their final days of shooting in Boone County, plus more about the documentary, featuring a close-up minute with Mamie, see the April/May issue of West Virginia South, a magazine published by Beckley Newspapers, which will be on newsstands beginning March 25.

— E-mail: jstover@register-herald.com