This Side of the Dirt' is a South Texas family drama steeped in satire and humor. The story takes place days after the death of the family patriarch, Papo. We find his daughter, Jean Ann, alone and weeping as she comes to terms with her loss. As each new character enters her home the layers of her pain and paranoia unfold. In an effort to curb her insecurities Jean Ann only intensifies them by creating more drama around her. As her paranoia builds -- putting her marriage and friendship on the...

In order to provide for his destitute family of drifters, a likable, sincere, able-bodied 15-year-old boy comes to hire on among a burned-out ex-con's group of aging forest laborers. As the man becomes more and more aware of the boy's abusive home life, his deeply buried humanity is roused. Drinking and smoking incessantly to remain detached from his volatile temper, he finally takes the matter into his own hands - come what may - when the boy's alcoholic father finally goes too far.