<P> Digging to China is a 1998 American drama film that marked the directorial debut of actor Timothy Hutton and the screen debut of Evan Rachel Wood . The screenplay by Karen Janszen focuses on the friendship forged between a precocious pre-teenaged girl with a vivid imagination and a mentally challenged adult male . </P> <P> Set in the mid-1960s, the story centers on ten - year - old Harriet Frankovitz, a lonely outcast who lives with her mother and older sister Gwen in the dilapidated motel with cabins shaped like teepees her mother received as part of her divorce settlement . Harriet has a strong desire to escape her dull existence by means of any one of a number of creative ways - a magic carpet she tries to fly off the roof, on board a flying saucer she anxiously awaits in the schoolyard, through a tunnel she has been digging to China, or by attaching helium - filled balloons to a lawn chair . Mrs. Frankovitz is a bitter alcoholic with a propensity for driving on the wrong side of the road, while promiscuous Gwen entertains a series of men in vacant rooms . Terminally ill Leah Schroth is en route to an institution where she plans to admit her mentally challenged son Ricky when their car breaks down near the motel, and the two stay there while waiting for the vehicle to be repaired . Mrs. Frankovitz is killed in an automobile accident, and Harriet discovers Gwen is her biological mother . The distressed girl and her new friend run away and set up house in an abandoned caboose concealed beneath dense foliage in the woods . When Ricky becomes ill, Harriet is forced to seek medical assistance for him . Once he recovers, his mother sets off with him to complete their interrupted journey, leaving Gwen and Harriet to learn to interact in their new roles of mother and daughter . </P> <P> The film was shot in Cherokee, North Carolina . </P> <P> The soundtrack includes "One Big Love" by Patty Griffin, "Last Train to Clarksville" by The Monkees, "Mas Que Nada" by Sérgio Mendez and Brazil' 66, "Iko Iko" by The Dixie Cups, "Soul Sauce" by Cal Tjader, "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells, "El Lobo" by Herb Alpert, "Samba Pa Ti" by Carlos Santana, and "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf . </P>

Where was the movie digging to china filmed