When It's Good, It's Good
Special | 10m 35sVideo has Audio Description, Closed Captions
A filmmaker returns to West Texas and documents the local oil industry's boom and bust.
A filmmaker returns to her hometown in West Texas to document the effects of the boom-and-bust nature of the oil industry. An intimate portrait of family, memory, and economy, When It’s Good, It’s Good centers around life in an oil town called Denver City, Texas.
See all videos with Audio DescriptionADMajor funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the...
When It's Good, It's Good
Special | 10m 35sVideo has Audio Description, Closed Captions
A filmmaker returns to her hometown in West Texas to document the effects of the boom-and-bust nature of the oil industry. An intimate portrait of family, memory, and economy, When It’s Good, It’s Good centers around life in an oil town called Denver City, Texas.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪♪ ♪♪ -I am a truck driver in the oil field.
It's been a rough, what, year and a half.
Lost a vehicle.
[ Laughs ] Lost a house.
-So right now my house, there's no walls in one of my rooms 'cause we were remodeling.
Halfway through, the oil field went to [bleep] So now we're in a half-constructed house.
♪♪ ♪♪ -In a town like this, everybody suffers.
You know, you -- you would think it's only a problem for the people that work in the oil field when it declines, but it's not.
♪♪ -Thanks to the hardworking citizens like you, the United States of America is now the number-one energy superpower anywhere in the world.
So congratulations.
♪♪ -And you always say this -- "Next time the oil field comes back up, we're gonna save."
But then it goes up and that's the last thing you do.
They don't know.
When it's good, it's good.
[ Line ringing ] [ Firecrackers popping ] -Hey.
-Hello.
-[ Laughs ] -What's going on?
-What's going on?
What are you up to?
-Nothing.
Just got off work, ate some food.
Just sitting around being lazy.
-How are you?
-Good.
-Busy?
-I was but not anymore.
[ Fireworks exploding ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -So, how long have you lived in Denver City?
-All my life.
35 years.
-I was...like 10, 11.
It quickly got boring as hell... -[ Laughs ] -...around -- around 14, 15.
[ Clicking ] ♪♪ -How would you, um -- How would you describe Denver City to someone who's never been there before?
-Just a small town.
Very supportive small town.
There's one grocery store.
There's 1, 2, 3, 4... maybe like 10 churches, 11 churches.
Schools, it's just one.
-Yeah, like -- -Like, there's one for each.
-What about gas stations?
-There's five.
-And restaurants?
-Uh, we -- we lost some 'cause of COVID, but we have -- we have about eight.
♪♪ -I had just turned 21 and I was a bartender at, like, one of the scummiest bars in Hobbs.
-[ Laughs ] -There was a guy in there that worked for Halliburton, and we started talking, and he's like, "Yeah, bro," he's like, "I can get you in."
It's basically like the Army.
Like -- Like, literally, there's recruiters, and they, like -- they -- they promise you the world and you can go wherever you want and see whatever you want and you're gonna make $120,000 a year.
All you got to do is sign on the dotted line.
[ Laughs ] You know?
Me and Chalie had just barely moved in together, like, had our first little house, and she was like, "I'm ready to, like, get married and have babies and, like, buy our own house and plan a future, like, start a family."
And I was like, "Yeah, awesome."
I said, "But it's not gonna happen working at a -- as a bartender," you know.
Like, this was some scummy [bleep]hole that -- You know, people were, like, counting their quarters to get a beer.
They weren't gonna drop you 20 bucks tip, you know.
So I just went and put in an application, and the guy called, and I just kind of went for it.
[ Overlapping talking ] -The record low price of oil.
-The demand for oil is nothing.
-Oil prices have turned negative.
-News on Wall Street today, oil prices plunge below zero.
That is the lowest... -Right here, man.
Show off your muscles.
-No!
-Let's see 'em.
-Here.
-Show Alex, your cousin Alex, your muscles.
Go like that.
Show her!
Look at that, Alex, look at that.
-Damn!
-Oh, man!
-I think it went down, 'cause it always goes down on -- on the election year, and that was scary when it went below zero.
I remember growing up, my friends would move away.
I'd be like, "This is a year they're gonna move again, every four years."
And it just always happens.
It just happens that we got the virus, too.
Get close to her, put your arm behind her.
-[ Laughs ] She's not gonna bite.
-Like, at school, I'm kind of known as the girl that tumbles, the girl that flips.
Politics comes up a lot between me and my friend group.
Yeah.
I don't like talking about politics with my friends 'cause, like, they get, like, angry and one of them gets so judgmental.
I'm just like, "Girl, chill.
We're 15, girl."
Like, if I support Trump and I talk about it, I'm like, "I don't support him as the person he is, but, like, as president, 'cause he's our president, and he supports the oil industry," and my friends are like, "You support a racist and a rapist president."
All these things why I shouldn't.
And I'm just kind of like -- I feel really attacked sometimes.
[ Sizzling ] -I got out in November, and by February, it was -- it was done.
-Do you think you'll go back to the oil field, or are you, like, happy being away from it?
-I'm happy being away from it.
My back doesn't hurt.
My -- Just everything.
General health.
No more oil field.
-How many years did you work in the oil field?
-Like 14.
-That's a while.
-Yeah.
I don't know.
I just -- Just a lot of wasted time, if you ask me.
-I mean -- -Being out there in a damn truck all the time.
[ Both laugh ] -Yeah.
I mean, it probably feels that way now, but, you know, you were providing.
-Yeah.
[ Drums playing ] ♪♪ [ Indistinct shouting ] ♪♪ -I knew you could do it better that time.
[Bleep] yeah!
-Gangster.
-Yes, sir.
-How'd you turn it off?
I was like, "I didn't."
-I told you you could do it better.
I'm glad I interrupted!
-'Cause I was here.
-That was badass.
-Ya me cansé.
[ Laughs ] Ah, no seas mamón.
-So how does it feel now?
-Right now you're comfortable.
Like, we're both making money, decent money.
[ Indistinct conversations ] -Do you feel stuck in Denver City?
-No, because it's -- it's different now.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like -- Like -- Like, this weekend, I have three damn shows.
[ Laughs ] I'm not at -- at the beck and call of some oil field tycoon asshole.
[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ -How would it feel leaving Denver City?
-It would be sad.
But I've learned that people leave, and if they're, you know, friends, then they keep up.
But I -- everyone left us.
You left me.
Your mom left.
Your grandma left.
You know, my friend Jasmine moved.
Denver City's only for a short while, part of life.
[ Fireworks exploding ] [ People cheering ] ♪♪ -Oh, I will let you go.
Hopefully you got -- you got enough of my blabbering to keep you busy.
[ Laughs ] -Love you, too.
Tell Sam hi.
-Love you and I'll talk to you soon, okay?
-Love you, too.
-Okay.
Bye, sweetie.
-Alright.
Bye.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the...