April works in a scrap yard. Daphany waits for customers in a fast food window. Lee spends the day waiting for school to be over. But the local circus school offers a departure from daily tedium and checked-out adults. Combining elements of fiction and documentary, In the Air is a portrait of a place that has endured an economic crisis for decades. The film features real people acting out scenes from everyday life and examines the force they are capable of in a deindustrialized world. In the Air is shot in Portsmouth, the filmmaker’s hometown in Southeastern Ohio—with the collaboration of the Cirque D’Art circus school.