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The Everlasting Stream

Rabbit Hunts and Life Lessons

The Everlasting Stream is a moving documentary based on the memoir of the same name by Walt Harrington.

The film begins by recalling Walt’s first hunting trip with his father-in-law, Alex, in Barren County. Walt had never shot a rabbit. A high-profile Washington Post reporter with a taste for manicures and expensive suits, he felt silly in his borrowed hunting gear, not quite knowing how to hold the shotgun Alex had given him as a gift. And he worried about whether he would get along with Alex’s hunting buddies, Bobby, Lewis, and Carl—three rough-edged African-American country men who seemed to have nothing in common with the white city slicker. Little did he know that over the next two decades, these four “good ol’ country guys” would change not only his opinions about hunting, but also his feelings about the things that mattered to him most.

When his own son turned 12, Walt began to take him hunting, too, believing that his suburban boy would benefit from spending time in the forests and fields and seeing his grandfather with men whose idea of love and friendship always put actions before words.

Over Thanksgiving-morning rabbit hunts in the Southcentral Kentucky countryside and a steady stream of wisecracks (especially about the time he accidentally sprayed his father-in-law with shotgun pellets), Walt came to appreciate the value of old-fashioned friendship and masculinity, the complexities of guilt and responsibility, and the enduring magic of a memorable moment.

By turns witty, revelatory, and profoundly elegant, The Everlasting Stream reminds us of the small and not-so-small things that should be treasured in life.

The Everlasting Stream is a 2006 KET production.