Indiana: A Tribute The Hoosier State


A decent little documentary about Indiana, its history and its people

Filmed in 1991, this 63 minute production is the first work of two brothers, Jim and John Hilgendorf who were inspired after visiting relatives in Indiana. They learned how to make movies while filming this one and logged more than 10,000 miles covering the state. They have since gone on to make more than a dozen documentaries about such places as Mexico, France, Oregon and St. Petersburg, Russia.

While the production values on Indiana: A Tribute The Hoosier State  are fairly low, the movie more than makes up for that with its thoroughness and its obvious affection for the Hoosier State. This native-born Hoosier cannot think of a thing that was left out, from James Dean to the Covered Bridge Festival to the Indy 500 to Tecumseh to Notre Dame to young Abe Lincoln to the architecture of Columbus to basketball to John Mellencamp...it's all here.

Beautiful shots of the Indiana countryside abound and there's a solid bit of history thrown in as well.

 I rate this documentary 5 stars out of 5.

 Reviewed on August 10, 2008

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