To celebrate our tenth anniversary, we asked Film Streams staff and board members to pick their top ten from the more than 1,600 films that illuminated the screens of the Ruth Sokolof Theater during its first decade. What emerged was a series that champions some of the finest independent and foreign films released in the last ten years.

WINTER’S BONE is a stellar film that utilizes the atmosphere of the thriller to tell a story about the effect of drugs on a family in the Ozarks. However, the community in Missouri where they planned on filming was hesitant to allow another stereotypical portrayal of the Ozarks.

Granik spoke to Public Books about gaining the locals’ trust on a story that could easily slip into clichés, “[We had local people have] a discussion around what it means to tell a story about methamphetamine in your corner of the Ozarks. It helped that the book was written by an Ozark author. Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence’s character) is a real folk hero. She embodies a very basic tenet of Ozark culture, namely defense of place: the idea that you are entitled to stand your native ground. Also at work was the idea of family loyalties, in their most beautiful and their most violent forms, as well as the idea of applauding women who have moxie. So there were these ingredients that enabled the story to celebrate key parts of Ozark heritage: moxie, survival, living close to the bone. Being able to obtain wild game when necessary. Having your house be humble, and yet having a strong will to survive the circumstances of your life.

[W]e [also] started seeing a lot of really lyrical and upbeat parts of Ozark culture, primarily coming through the vein of music […] We wanted to say, ‘Okay, it’s time. [The stereotypes of the film] DELIVERANCE can only hold its grip for so long — 35 years is a long sentence. The banjo can be in this film and it doesn’t have to mean something dark. It can re-signify.’ In WINTER’S BONE, that comes in the form of a story in which family survival is the central issue, rather than animosity towards outsiders.”