Does anyone have any recommendations or high praise for a movie/show that had an authentic-feeling setting of a place (or culture) you don't see too often in media? Some of the ones I think of are below, thanks in advance for providing other examples instead of criticizing these examples.

• Whale Rider
• Timbuktu
• Nomadland
• Mystic Pizza
• Parasite
• Slumdog Millionaire

Warrior on HBO max, all about the first wave of Chinese immigrants to the US in San Francisco.

Friends.

Unorthodox---Netflix

City of God - Rio favelas

Boyhood

Gummo - white trash midwest

Hoosiers - basketball crazed rural Indianans

Deliverance -- hillbillies

Gran Turino = Hmong

Moana - ancient Polynesians

Jason's Lyric - H-Tine Inner City

Coco

For west Texas, I think "Dancer, Texas" is the best.

Also, "The Tao of Steve" is a good look at Albuquerque.

The Florida Project is a great look at the ghettos outside of Disney World. Recommend.

Sounds like Texas has been done a lot.

Winter's Bone

Grizzly Man. Alaska and a mentally deranged individual both in their most pure and natural elements.

Small French town (probably idealized) in Hundred Foot Journey

Champ Bailey said:

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Sounds like Texas has been done a lot.

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Debbie does Dallas...

Spider-man: Homecoming - Atlanta, Georgia

Teacher_Ag said:

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Apocalypto. Mel Gibson's team did an amazing job by shooting in a particular place to capture its beauty/essence and hiring actors with that cultural heritage who speak the actual language. I love movies like that that seem so immersive.

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Nacho Libre did this with a comedy.

True. I saw it as to rural Mexico what Napoleon Dynamite was to rural Idaho.

Also, I think this post is more about shows/movies, but I'd give a nod to the last three Assassin's Creed titles, Origins (Egypt of Cleopatra's life), Odyssey (Greece during the Peloponnesian War) and Valhalla (Viking age and Anglo-Saxon England). The level of research and detail that went into rendering those environments and characters is so impressive. I've heard of Classics professors using Origins and Odyssey in their classrooms because they are the best renderings to date of those places. As a HS history teacher I've made use of certain parts of them.

Wind River

Teacher_Ag said:

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True. I saw it as to rural Mexico what Napoleon Dynamite was to rural Idaho.

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And Fargo to the upper Midwest during winter.


The God-awfulness of war-torn cultures in Africa was well-displayed in Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond.

Teacher_Ag said:

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Also, I think this post is more about shows/movies, but I'd give a nod to the last three Assassin's Creed titles, Origins (Egypt of Cleopatra's life), Odyssey (Greece during the Peloponnesian War) and Valhalla (Viking age and Anglo-Saxon England). The level of research and detail that went into rendering those environments and characters is so impressive. I've heard of Classics professors using Origins and Odyssey in their classrooms because they are the best renderings to date of those places. As a HS history teacher I've made use of certain parts of them.

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Especially if you like to read all of the additional content. Although it's probably so much you might as well read a text book.

Bernie for North East Texas for sure.