Robert De Niro, Co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, participated in the opening ceremonies for the 2009 festivities in which one Boone County family was featured in the documentary “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.”

The Whites, who are as well-known in Boone County as Robert De Niro is for his acting, were the subjects in Director Julien Nitzberg’s documentary.

Described as both famous and infamous, Jesco White gained his own fan base following the PBS documentary, The Dancing Outlaw, and has more than 5,000 members on the Jesco White fan club on facebook.

“A lot of people who've never spent time in Appalachia, stereotype the people there. But if you spend any time there you will discover that it is filled not only with some of the nicest and funniest people you've ever met but also some of the smartest. You'll meet coalminers who just rattle off history like you've ever seen,” Nitzberg writes in a huffingtonpost blog.

MTV Studios and executive producers Johnny Knoxville, and Jeff Tremaine, of the series "Jackass" are both popular backers for the documentary.

An online trailer for the film has circulated through West Virginia over the past several days and has garnered mixed reactions from viewers.

The documentary’s trailer opens with a West Virginia welcome sign and then cuts to a smaller “Boone County” road sign.

Boone County evangelist Patricia Smith, sitting on a couch in what is presumed to be her living room, is the first face viewers see as the voice of an unseen narrator asks, “Can you tell me about the reputation of the White family in Boone County and West Virginia?”

To which, she responds, “I’d really rather not comment on that.”

Then, after the narrator, along with other community leaders dolling out a litany of crimes – such as burglary, fights, embezzlement, armed robbery, forgery – viewers get their first glimpse of the “Dancing Outlaw” Jesco White.

It’s not a pretty picture as Jesco White, with a full white beard raises both middle fingers and sticks his tongue out to the camera.

Arguably, though, that is exactly the type of behavior that appeals to the audience and fans of the jackass movies.

As one commentator noted, “not watching [the documentary] would be like trying to stop a coal train.”

In his huffingtonpost blog, Nitzberg says that the film tackles serious environmental and cultural issues. He writes, “The rise of mountain top removal is the perfect metaphor for life there… The money comes quickly, the mountain leaves faster and then the communities are screwed afterwards left with no work. Party now because the coal will soon be gone and we'll be left with nothing. That's the story of too much life there. It's either crushing up coal to sell or crushing up pills to snort.

“Yet, no one asks, where that coal goes to? Whose giant TV monitors, computers and lights get lit up with the energy torn from the mountains? It turns out it's our friends running the country in Washington DC and its suburbs. And they certainly know what burning all that coal does to the environment. So, who is more f***ed -- the people mining the coal and snorting lines, knowing their lives are short or the people buying the coal and burning it in the power plants they never see to light up their classy wine parties, knowing their lives are long? I think the Whites are the honest ones. They know they are rushing to oblivion, while the rest of us are just in the slow lane on that same highway. Only the energy fueling the rest of our trip was ripped from the mountains the Whites grew up on top of.”

The Web site Salon.com listed the film as one of the 10 most promising documentaries to premiere at Tribeca. The site said a total of 85 movies were expected to be shown during the 12-day festival.

Writer Elizabeth Fairchild commented on her blog, personalmoneystore.com, that the documentary was garnering so much attention at the Tribeca Film Festival that it just may “break the stereotypes and bring in some cash.”

However, the approximately 2 ½ minute trailer has elicited concerns that the film does instead continue to advance negative stereotypes of West Virginians. It can be viewed here: http://www.jackassworld.com/blog/2009/04/21/the-wild-and-wonderful-whites-of-west-virginia-the-trailer/

The self-proclaimed “Different kind of documentary” is the result of one year spent shadowing the lives of Jesco and his family members, including Mamie White, Bo White, Derek White, Kirk White, and Brandon White.

It did not win the award for best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. Instead, that honor went to the work of George Reyes, for the film “La Muneca Fea” (The Ugly Doll), which looks at a group of elderly sex workers in Mexico City who seek refuge.

An honorable mention for the category also went to Director Stephen Maing, for his documentary “High Tech, Low Life,” which explores how one young Chinese vegetable seller is motivated to become China’s first citizen reporter, covering the country’s controversial and censored news stories.