South Tunnel (2000)

At the age of 18, Willful Swann comes home to find his brother-in-law once again beating his sister while his 6 month-old niece sleeps in the next room. After making sure his sister and niece are safe, Will takes justice into his own hands. On his 33rd birthday, Will is released from The Atlanta Penitentiary with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. A mysterious letter about his father's suicide some 25 years earlier send him into the heart of Tennessee on a journey into his past, to the town of his childhood, and ironically to his future. In the small, almost forgotten town of South Tunnel, tucked away in the hills of Tennessee, Will meets a philosophical mechanic who "happens to wear dresses", a single mother who runs the local boardinghouse and is raising her dauntless 8 year-old son on her own, a drunken country songwriter who sells his hit songs for 25 bucks and a beer, and a host of other local yokels. In this unlikely yet true-to-life mix of characters, Will learns a thing or two about acceptance, courage, reparation, and coming home.