Anyone who enters the hardware store in the 900-soul community of Lumpkin in rural southwestern Georgia will find, in addition to tools, animal feed and seeds, a number of unexpected things. Kellie’s small, privately run hardware store is more than a store, it is a lifeline for the region: supply depot, gossip station, refuge. Kellie has a kind word for everyone, employs bored teenagers from the neighbourhood, cheers up lonely seniors, and adopts stray dogs. She meets everyone with warmth, patience, and dry wit. She comments only briefly – and after closing time, of course – on the fact that as a queer woman in a traditionally Republican corner of the USA she does not always have it easy, especially not in a job where dealing with DIY mansplainers is her daily bread.
Kathrin Seward and Ole Elfenkaemper observe this woman of conviction’s everyday life and have great fun immersing themselves in the details of these spaces and the absurd and entertaining intricacies of the social interactions. This very special universe almost makes us forget that next to the atmosphere in the store, open in every respect, there is also quite a different America that is not about friendliness and helpfulness, but about selfishness, aggression, and discrimination.