Appalshop Notes

Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute (AMI), currently in the midst of its flagship Summer Documentary Institute, received grant awards this week of $225,000 from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and $50,000 from the NEA. AMI uses media making to teach leadership to youth from the central Appalachian coalfields.

This year's Seedtime involved more than 1900 participants. Using a formula developed by Appalachian State University for MerleFest, Seedtime exerted a local economic impact of $261,000.

We're very proud to contribute both to the cultural health of Letcher County and the economic health of the area. Seedtime 2008 proves that money invested in the arts and culture delivers a seven-fold return to the economy. What is more important, however, is presenting outstanding musicians, films, crafts, and other cultural activities here in Whitesburg.

Seedtime drew participants from Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Indonesia, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Louisiana. Three-quarters of the attendees came from Kentucky, but only 31% from Letcher County itself.

Data from interviews with 55 festival participants indicated that they attended an average of two days of the festival and spent one and a third nights in Letcher County. Not counting tickets, the average Seedtime attendee spent $128 in Letcher County.

Seedtime on the Cumberland received editorial coverage or advertising in the Mountain Eagle, Pikeville Medical Leader, Letcher County Community News-Press, Appalachian News-Express, Coalfield Progress, Old-Time Herald, Bluegrass Unlimited, Dirty Linen, WMMT-FM, WEKU-FM, and Inside Appalachia.

Fifteen visiting media producers from Indonesia created both audio and video pieces about Seedtime. These were presented at Summit City Lounge on June 18 to an enthusiastic audience. The audio story will be broadcast on radio in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

We hope that you will support Seedtime 2009, June 10-13.

The support of its sponsors made possible the free components and helped keep the ticket costs down in the evening. 2008 sponsors were Lonesome Records, Parkway Pharmacy, Community Trust Bank, the Parkway Inn, the Mountain Eagle newspaper, Food City, Mama Mac's, Home Town Music, and ARH - Whitesburg. Seedtime, as a part of Appalshop, also receives support from Kentucky Arts Council and the Appalshop Production & Education Fund. Seedtime 2008 also acknowledged the support of the City of Whitesburg, the Letcher County Fiscal Court, Letcher County Central High School, Letcher County Tourism Commission, WMMT-FM, Courthouse Cafe, Summit City Lounge, Cowan Community Action Group, Letcher County Senior Citizens Center, Roy Tackett, Frazier's Farm Supply, and Whitesburg First Baptist Church.

Appalshop will host fifteen Indonesian media artists from June 7-21, 2008. The Indonesian artists will be working with Appalshop filmmakers and Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) interns to create and exhibit film and audio. The exchange members will present work for festival audiences during Appalshop's annual Seedtime on the Cumberland, starting with an evening of outdoor screenings on the Seedtime grounds in Whitesburg on Tuesday, June 10.

Throughout the visit, Exchange members will participate in media training sessions and collaborative production with AMI; reciprocal screenings and discussions of films and videos; as well as exposure to the Appalachian region's history, culture, and social issues through community events and conversations as part of a person-to-person exchange approach.

Appalshop is also hosting Indonesian filmmaker and visual anthropologist Aryo Danusiri as a short-term visiting artist in conjunction with the Exchange Project. He is currently in the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship pursuing a PhD at Harvard University. Aryo is affiliated with the organization RAGAM Media Network. Based in Jakarta, Aryo has made videos in West Papua and Aceh and will be sharing his work throughout Seedtime.

In addition, the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) is hosting youth media makers from Texas this week.

Indonesian organizations represented include:

• From Sulawesi (previously known as Celebes) Kiri Depan is a small organization founded in 2006 whose aim is to develop a network between film communities in Makassar (population 1.3 million; capital of South Sulawesi) by producing short films and organizing film screenings.
• Komunitas Adat Ngata Toro is located in the village of Ngata Toro, more than 2000 feet above sea level and surrounded by hills and mountains of the remote Lore Lindu National Park's forest, about 2 to 3 hours drive from Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi. Fifty families live in seven village districts that preserve their environment and indigenous knowledge. Following video training in 2005, they began making their own media and continue to document important events inside their own community.
• Yascita is an NGO established in 1998 that started the first community based Radio (Swara Alam Radio - 1999) and TV (Kendari TV - 2003) in Southeast Sulawesi. Based in the capital Kendari, both media outlets broadcast everyday to fulfill their mission of developing independent mass media and community media with a goal of widely providing information access for the society in the Province they serve.
• From Kalimantan (previously known as Indonesian Borneo) Canopy Indonesia is an organization of 10 members based in Pontianak (West Kalimantan) that uses visual media as a tool for environmental and cultural preservation as well as education. They conduct screenings of documentary films, carry out trainings and workshops for 'newcomer' documentary filmmaker as well as connect more established television producers with content while also developing their own productions.
• PADI is a non-governmental organization based in Balikpapan focusing on social issues regarding ecology, ethnic groups, and economics. It has 7 members who use video and photography as part of advocacy programs in its East Pontianak community capturing the social condition of Dayak people and the impact of illegal logging and deforestation as well as gold, nickel, and coal mining.

Appalshop's partner organization for the Exchange is Boemboe, founded in Jakarta during 2003 as a meeting point for those concerned with the development of Indonesian short film and to further independent media networking within and outside Indonesia.