Filmmaker Mark Laita has opened up about his first encounter with the Whittaker family of West Virginia, known as “America’s most inbred family”
The filmmaker has made several documentaries about the family(Image: Soft White Underbelly /Youtube)
The documentary filmmaker who brought widespread attention to what has been labelled “America’s most inbred family” has opened up about his first meeting with them.
Mark Laita, who initially produced a film about the Whittakers in Odd, West Virginia, five years ago, has kept returning to document the family, posting updates to his YouTube channel.
The pattern of inbreeding within the Whittaker family started when the children of identical twin brothers Henry and John wed each other and began having families. This triggered generations of inbreeding, resulting in many of the children being born with severe disabilities.
Laita disclosed that when he first discovered the family, earning their trust was challenging, as local residents are intensely protective of them. He ultimately secured the assistance of a police officer to accompany him to their residence.
Describing the experience on the Koncrete Klips podcast, the filmmaker said: “We came around to this road, which turns into a country road, which turns into a dirt road.”, reports the Express US.
The Whittakers have been dubbed America’s most inbred family(Image: Youtube/, Soft White Underbelly)
He added: “Then we come to this trailer and then a little shack on the other side of the road. And there’s these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they are barking at us.”
Laita compared his initial meeting with the family to a scene lifted directly from the classic thriller film Deliverance.
He recalled: “One guy, you would look him in the eye or say anything and he would just scream and go running away, and his pants would fall around his ankles, and he would go running off and go and kick a garbage can. And this would happen over and over. It was out of control – the craziest thing I have ever seen.”
At first, the family was reluctant to interact with Laita, but he slowly built trust with them after offering to photograph them for inclusion in a dead relative’s coffin. He returned subsequently to film Inbred Family – The Whittakers in 2020.
The Whittaker family suffer from a string of genetic defects(Image: YouTube/Soft White Underbelly)
He admitted it was “hard to communicate with them” but has since created videos for his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly, documenting their lives. The videos feature titles such as “Christmas season with the Whittakers”, “The Whittaker family cemetery”, and “The Whittakers go to the state fair”.
Laita observed that over the years, he has received mixed reactions from viewers about his videos. He said some brand him an “exploitative b******” while others regard the footage “incredible”.
He accepted his work was exploitative, but maintained it was unavoidable in life, stating: “It feels exploitative but I think it’s good for us all to know that these things exist. The hotel I’m staying at, they’re exploiting my need for sleep. The restaurant I ate breakfast at is exploiting my hunger. Everything is exploitative. Photography and video are especially by nature exploitative.”