Directed by: Elizabeth Barret
2000
Running Time: 61 Minutes
Color
In 1967 Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor visited the mountains of Central Appalachia to document poverty. A local landlord, who resented the presence of filmmakers on his property, shot and killed O'Connor, in part because of his anger over the media images of Appalachia that had become icons in the nation's War on Poverty. Filmmaker Elizabeth Barret, a native of Appalachia, uses O'Connor's death as a lens to explore the complex relationship between those who make films to promote social change and the people whose lives are represented in such media productions. Through first-person accounts of the killing and the perspective of three decades of reflection, Stranger With A Camera leads viewers on a quest for understanding - a quest that ultimately leads Barret to examine her own role as both a maker of media and a member of the Appalachian community she portrays.
Stranger With A Camera is the story of a singular incident, yet it is emblematic of today's unresolved questions concerning media images and the individual's lack of power to define themselves within the American landscape. The film focuses on the O'Connor murder as a pivot point to explore issues of representation, culture, media and community.
Reviews
“A provocative moral inquiry but also a vivid portrait of a place and time.” – The New York Times
“A quietly incisive and sublime examination of media power… Top of the List.” – Booklist
"This provocative, troubling film about an almost forgotten tragedy will arouse conflicting emotions, but it's a perceptive meditation on our eternal ambivalence about our relationship with the media." -- Library Journal
"Stranger With A Camera is an exceptionally moving film about a people and place often misunderstood by the outside world." - 2000 Sundance Film Festival
"One of the best documentaries ever made...way beyond everything that has ever been done on the issue of where images come from and how images are perceived from different perspectives." - David Whisnant, Professor of English and American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Screenings & Festivals
Sundance Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival - Golden Gate Award
DoubleTake Documentary Festival
Museum of Modern Art
Hot Docs/Canadian International Documentary Festival
Taos Talking Picture Festival
American Historical Association – John C. O’Conner Film Award
Council on Foundations
DocFest, New York
Duke University, 5th Annual Film Happenings
Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley
Reeltime Independent Film & Video Forum
School of the Art Institute, Chicago
International Human Rights Exchange, Cape Town, South Africa
American Folklore Society
Oral History Association
