By Emily Hagedorn
Enquirer contributor

RABBIT HASH - The Ohio River hamlet known as Rabbit Hash could be going Hollywood.

The town's offbeat history - from early settlers eating rabbits to a 19th-century general store open to this day, to electing a dog as mayor - has become the subject of a documentary film called Rabbit Hash: The Center of the Universe.

The film will be shown Wednesday in Los Angeles to industry executives and could be shown within a few months in Rabbit Hash.

The documentary boasts an inside look at the Boone County town that has survived floods, fires, deaths and modernization.

The film centers on the 1998 mayoral election of Goofy, a 15-year-old mixed-breed dog, said Jude Gerard Prest, the film's writer, director and co-producer.

Voters paid $1 per vote - a jab at Kentucky politics. Proceeds went to restore an area church, and in the end, Goofy won with $5,664.

Sadly, the good mayor had to be put to sleep in 2001.

"Trust us, we couldn't make this stuff up," Prest said.

Prest said the 80-minute movie is 100 percent true and does not mock the town and its occupants, he said.

"In different hands, it could have easily been making fun of this little town," he said.

Prest first came in contact with Rabbit Hash about two years ago when he was shooting a film across the Ohio River in Rising Sun, Ind.

Coming over to Kentucky for a closer look, he fell in love with the quiet hamlet.

"It's got a charm to it and this peacefulness," Prest said. "It just feels when you walk into the town, you're home. It's certainly not something you feel in L.A."

Along with the music video by Noah Hunt, a Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band vocalist and Cincinnati native, the film features an original song by Rabbit Hash resident Tom Taylor, music from the Rabbit Hash String Band, the Portland-based band Lisa and Her Kin, and singer Pete Ficht.

The film also has a Web site, www.rabbithashthemovie.com.

Prest has sent the film to 15 festivals, hoping to get it marketed, he said.

So far, four have replied, not accepting it. But the negative responses don't necessarily reflect on the film, he said.

"It's really heavy subjects that tend to be accepted in film festivals," he said. "At the least, we're confident it will end up on HBO."

About 1,800 miles away from Los Angeles, Rabbit Hash residents are looking forward to their own premiere. That could happen this summer, probably on a large, outdoor screen, Prest said.

"Instead of going in limos, we'll go in our trucks and our bib overalls," said Don Clare, president of the Rabbit Hash Historical Society and one of the film's main narrators. "That's our premiere."

The town may also gear up for another mayoral election, which Prest said he may come back to shoot for a follow-up film.

"The dog has died," Clare said. "I have a donkey I want to run. I'm going to run him as a Republican.

"Just to confuse people," Clare said, chuckling.

This is the type of humor and banter found in "the center of the universe," Prest said.

"They're a little offbeat, a little funny," he said.

"In the end, the film is a pretty cool statement about these people and this town."