Appalshop program participants filming. (Credit: Shawn Poynter Photography) A lot of people don’t believe me when I tell them Letcher County, Kentucky, is one of the most open-minded places I’ve ever lived. I might not have believed it either, before I moved here a year ago. I’ve spent most of my life in cities and suburbs, and I arrived with all the assumptions you can imagine about Central Appalachia and the people who live here. But if you’ve been here, or to similar places, you know how wrong those assumptions can be.