Years ago, Medora, Indiana was a booming rural community with prosperous farms, an automotive parts factory, a brick plant, and a thriving middle class. The factories have since closed, crippling Medora’s economy and its pride. The population has slowly dwindled to around five-hundred people. Drug use is common, the school faces consolidation, and as one resident put it, “this town’s on the ropes.”

A hit at the 2013 SXSW film festival “Medora” follows the down-but-not-out Medora Hornets varsity basketball team over the course of the 2011 season, capturing the players’ stories both on and off the court. The Hornets were riding an epic losing streak when the filmmakers arrived, and the team’s struggle to compete bears eerie resonances with the town’s fight for survival.

“Medora” is an in-depth, deeply personal look at small-town life, a thrilling, underdog basketball story, and an inspiring tale of a community refusing to give up hope despite the brutal odds stacked against them. On a grander scale, it’s a film about America, and the thousands of small towns across the country facing the same fight. As one townspeople put it, “Once we lose these small towns, we can’t get them back.”

DON’T JUST STAND THERE–Watch the trailer