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Sourwood Mountain Dulcimers

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:30:00 +0300

Directed by: Gene DuBey 1976 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Dulcimers are one of the world's oldest musical instruments and have been heard in the southern mountains since the time of the earliest white settlers. The knowledge of how to make and play them has been handed down from one practitioner to another for generations. In this film, I.D. Stamper, a master dulcimer builder and player from eastern Kentucky, and John McCutcheon, a young musician, play together, swap tunes, discuss musical traditions and demonstrate the difference between hammered and mountain style dulcimer.

Reviews

"Remarks about the origins of various instruments, the traditions of instrument making in the area, and the influence of one musician's style on the other waft gently through the film in an informative commentary that does not intrude on the obvious and simple joys of the men's music making and shared friendship." -Booklist

"The music, the friendship of the musicians, and the greens and blues of a summer afternoon make an extraordinarily pleasant film." -Educational Film Library Association

"An asset to any music department." -John C. Childress, Media Services, Hinds Junior College

Screenings & Festivals

Festival of American Folklife, Smithsonian Institution

International Festival of Documentary

From Wood To Singing Guitar

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:44:55 +0300

Directed by: Shawn Lind 2009 Running Time: 32:00 Color

From Wood to Singing Guitar is an Appalshop documentary film showcasing Wayne C. Henderson, the master musician and master luthier from the small town of Rugby, Virginia near the foot of Mount Rogers (the highest point in Virginia). A skilled craftsman & respected musician by his teens, Wayne was taught and encouraged by those around him including the folk hero E.C. Ball and the kind & generous fiddle maker, Albert Hash. Learning much more than just guitar building and playing, Wayne continues to do the same for the younger generations by sharing the craft with others like Gerald Anderson, who is passing it onto Spencer Strickland, and encourages any young musician to play with him and his friends such as Doc Watson, Steve Kilby, Herb Key, Jeff Little, Sammy Shelor, Roni Stoneman, Robin Kessinger, The Kruger Brothers, and the list goes on.

Ready for Harvest: Clearcutting in the Southern Appalachians

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:40:12 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1994 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Beginning in the late 1800's, and continuing into the early decades of the 20th century, forests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains were extensively logged. Since that time, the forests have grown back and matured. These hardwood stands of hickory, oak, black cherry, and walnut are attracting timber companies to private land and national forests. The U.S. Forest Service sells the trees on these public tracts for prices well below market value. In most cases, companies choose to harvest these tracts by clear cutting the entire area.

Ready for Harvest explores the complex questions of how we use and protect our native forests. Footage includes interviews with Walton Smith, who has practiced sound forest management techniques for more than 60 years; Betty Ballew, whose community was dislocated because other people wanted to use the land for their own purposes; and Chuck Crow, a Cherokee who ahs seen the short-term gains and long-term losses to communities when the forests that surround them are stripped of trees. Mary Kelly, an ecologist, explains the importance of biological diversity to a healthy ecosystem.

On the other side, the U.S. Forest Service has promoted management practices that discourage growth of non-commercial species, such as dogwood and red maple. timber companies, citing the Forest Service's expertise, harvest trees primarily by clear-cutting because it is more economical than selective cutting.

Ready for Harvest is meant to encourage debate about a forest management policy that affects the environment, the economy, and a culture.

Reviews

"... a factually sound and emotionally stimulating video presentation of a major issue ..." - Edward C. Fritz, Forest Reform Network

"... brings fresh insight into the shady dealings of the U.S. Forest Service." - San Francisco Environmental Film Festival

"Excellent." - Rich Green, Kentucky Division of Forestry

"A unique portrayal of the environmental and cultural impact of clear cutting." - William H. Gillespie, State Forester (retired), West Virginia

"A powerful and scary film." - Anne Radford Phillips, Cooperation Extension Services, North Carolina State University, Raleigh

"Stimulated lots of discussion in the classroom about government policies and clear cutting procedures and the effects of both on the environment." - Dr. James Norwood, Agriculture Science, East Texas University

"Should motivate all viewers to help stop the forest destruction happening in their own backyards." - Steve Fesenmaier, Director, West Virginia Library Commission

Screenings & Festivals

North American Association for Environmental Education Film and Video Festival - Best of Show

San Francisco Environmental Film Festival - Screening

Charlotte Film Festival - Screening

Athens International Film Festival - Screening

Vermont [EarthPeace] International Film Festival - Semi-Finalist

Tommorow's People

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:19:21 +0400

Directed by: Gene DuBey 1973 Running Time: 17:00 Color

A sight and sound experience of mountain music and culture, Tomorrow's People is an Appalachian precursor to today's music video. I.D. Stamper's dulcimer music and a lively banjo/fiddle/guitar "breakdown" are accompanied by a visual essay on Appalachian people and places that mixes archival photos and current footage. The film concludes with Lee Sexton leading a square dance at the Carcassonne Community Center.

Reviews

"Especially popular with senior citizens and with students of folk music and folk art....May be used effectively for Music and Art courses, for American history and for Language Arts studies." -Edna Parker, Bradley Memorial Library

Screenings & Festivals

Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University

Festival of American Folklife, Smithsonian Institution

Music Educators National Conference

Pacific Film Archive

Frontier Nursing Service

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:18:12 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1984 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Mary Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925 as a demonstration project of accessible, affordable, and competent health care for a rural population. Nurse-midwives came to Hyden, Kentucky and established outpost nursing centers that provided primary health care over 700 square miles of mountain terrain. The service grew and now operates a hospital with one of the few training programs for nurse-midwives in the country. In Frontier Nursing Service, comments by Betty Lester, one of the first nurse-midwives, are intercut with scenes from The Forgotten Frontier, a 1930 film about FNS which was made by Breckinridge's cousin, Mrs. Marvin Breckinridge Patterson. In this rarely-seen film, nurse-midwives race on horseback through the wooded hills to deliver babies, treat gunshot victims, and innoculate schoolchildren.

Reviews

"A wonderful montage of actual footage and recent interviews....This video has been used in the Heritage of Nursing course but also has the potential to be part of Pediatrics, Nurse-Midwifery, Maternity, and Community Health Nursing curricula." -Angela Jacobi, Assistant Professor, Department of Maternal-Child Nursing, Rush University

"Outstanding! A most effective way to introduce the dynamics of the region, I use the program with every training session. A wonderful combination of old and new footage." -Mary Lee Daugherty, Director, Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center, Berea, Kentucky

"A delightful portrait of the Frontier Nursing Service as it was in its infancy...equally interesting is the pictorial history of the people and culture of rural eastern Kentucky during the early 20th century." -Now and Then Magazine

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Fixin' to Tell About Jack

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:17:54 +0400

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Elizabeth Barret 1975 Running Time: 25:00 Color

Ray Hicks is a mountain farmer from Beech Mountain, North Carolina, with a genius for telling traditional folktales that have been passed down in his family for generations. This film shows Ray working on his farm, gathering herbs in the woods, and describing his family's tradition of storytelling and his theories of human and natural continuity. Running throughout the film is Ray telling a tale called "Whickity-Whack, Into My Sack" (also known as "Soldier Jack").

Fixin' to Tell About Jack provides a wonderful opportunity to experience the art of this National Heritage Award winner while also reminding us of the importance of passing things on, tradition, and memory.

Reviews

Lawrence W. Levine, Department of History, University of California at Berkeley

"A beautiful editing job and an exquisite film." -Richard Chase, author of the collected and edited Jack Tales and Grandfather Tales

"The film is excellent. The kids really enjoyed it. Good work!" -Peter Tommerup, Montclair School, Los Altos, California

"A major part of my folklore and storytelling courses. An excellent film and a sensitive portrait of Ray." -Wilson Roberts, Department of English and Folklore, Greenfield Community College

"Beautifully made, authentic presentation of Anglo-American folklore." -University of California Extension Media Center

Screenings & Festivals

American Folklore Society
Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University
Montana Film and Video Festival
Projections on the South: Folklore and Enthography on Film

Nimrod Workman: To Fit My Own Category

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:33:05 +0400

Directed by: Scott Faulkner and Anthony Slone 1975 Running Time: 35:00 B/W

Nimrod Workman was born in 1895 and provided for a family of thirteen working in the coal mines of West Virginia. To Fit My Own Category is an extended visit at his home as he and his family prepare meals, build an addition to the house, dig for yellow root, swap jokes with the neighbors, and enjoy each other's company. Nimrod's reminiscences about coalmining, union organizing in the 1920s and '30s, and eighty-three years in the mountains are intercut with impromptu performances of the traditional ballads and original songs for which he won a National Heritage Award. This program will be of interest to students of labor and coalmining history, West Virginia history, folklore and music, and issues related to aging.

Reviews

"His impromptu early-morning greeting from his porch is liable to make you think twice about pre-conceptions of the aged....The only drawback to this film is that it can't be hours longer." -Dave Moberly, Barbourville Mountain Advocate

"Nimrod Workman has worked for 42 years in the coal mines, but has come through with a joyous spirit and no bitterness....For every occasion, a folksong is inevitably ready." -The New York Times

"Nimrod continues to amaze! My students, most from middle-class, midwestern homes, were really impressed with his spirit, energy, and character." -Richard Shaw, Department of History, University of Missouri

"A good starting point for a discussion of the role of folklore in people's lives." -Carolyn Lipson-Walker, Indiana University, Journal of American Folklore

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Athens International Film Festival--Merit Award

Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University

Film Forum, New York

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Sonoma Valley Film Festival

Anne Braden: Southern Patriot

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:24:07 +0400

Anne Braden: Southern Patriot

An Appalshop Films Documentary

77 minutes, 2012 Release

Anne Braden: Southern Patriot is a first person documentary about the extraordinary life of this American civil rights leader. Braden was hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail as a white southerner whose rejection of her segregationist upbringing was “eloquent and prophetic. Ostracized as a “red” in the 1950s, she fought for an inclusive movement community and mentored three generations of social justice advocates. Braden’s story explores not only the dangers of racism and political repression but also the power of a woman’s life spent in commitment to social justice.

“Anne Braden changed my life: this film will change yours.” Robin D.G. Kelley, author & historian

“A must see film.” Tim Wise, anti-racism educator & writer

Anne Braden: Southern Patriot was produced and directed by Appalshop filmmakers Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering.

Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man & Buffalo Creek Revisited

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:12:09 +0300

In December of 2005, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced his annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry, including the 1975 Appalshop film The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man, directed by Mimi Pickering. Both films are available together on one DVD with extra features and a website with extensive background plus study materials.

The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1975 Running Time: 40:00 B/W

On February 26, 1972, a coal-waste dam owned by the Pittston Company collapsed at the head of a crowded hollow in southern West Virginia. A wall of sludge, debris, and water tore through the valley below, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless. Interviews with survivors, representatives of union and citizen’s groups, and officials of the Pittston Company are juxtaposed with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing devastation. As reasons for the disaster are sought out and examined, evidence mounts that company officials knew of the hazard in advance of the flood, and that the dam was in violation of state and federal regulations. The Pittston Company, however, continued to deny any wrongdoing, maintaining that the disaster was an ’an act of God.’

Reviews

"A devastating expose of the collusion between state officials and coal executives... a powerful piece of muckraking on film." -Newsweek

"Outstanding! A very powerful film." -Dr. Parker Marden, Professor of Sociology, St. Lawrence University

"Very accurately reflects the despair and frustration of a community caught in a web of corporate red tape... an excellent instructional vehicle for studies in sociology, business, psychology, and government." -Media Digest

"Admirable for its ability to strike a balance between emotion and analysis, the film speaks to us on the human level of universal loss and suffering. But it is also a political film that reflects the decades of abuse and frustration experienced by miners and their families." -Andrew Horton, Film Quarterly

"This film is recommended." -Educational Film Library Association

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Chicago International Film Festival--Silver Plaque

Museum of Modern Art

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Projections of the South: Folklore

Buffalo Creek Revisited

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1984 Running Time: 31:00 Color

Filmed ten years after the flood, Buffalo Creek Revisited looks at the second disaster on Buffalo Creek, in which the survivors’ efforts to rebuild the communities shattered by the flood are thwarted by government insensitivity and a century-old pattern of corporate control of the region’s land and resources. Through the statements of survivors, planners, politicians, psychologists, and community activists, the film explores the psychology of disaster, the importance of community, and the paradox of a poor people living in a rich land.

Reviews

"Captures in gripping detail how the effects of a disaster like the Buffalo Creek flood can continue to haunt the sturdiest of people even years later." -Kai Erikson, Yale University Sociologist and Author, Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood

"A very perceptive study of the effects of community disaster and dislocation and of the inability of governments at all levels to deal with it." -Choice

"A valuable teaching tool for discussions of the importance of land and community in Appalachia, the power and arrogance of the coal industry, and the insensitivity of government bureaucracy." -Stephen Fisher, Professor of Political Science, Emory and Henry College

"A powerful and sensitive treatment of a lingering human tragedy." -Library Journal

"An eye-opening revelation." -Booklist

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Athens International Film Festival--Merit Award

National Housing Video and Film Festival

Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Award Winner

Western Psychological Association Convention

Women in the Director’s Chair--Award Winner

Click Here to visit the official Buffalo Creek Flood Web Site.

Justice in the Coalfields

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:08:14 +0300

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1995 Running Time: 57:00 Color

Justice in the Coalfields demonstrates how current labor law has crippled the collective bargaining power of unions and weighed the scales of justice against working people. The documentary follows the United Mine Workers strike against the Pittston Coal Company and explores the strike's social, cultural, and economic impact on coalfield communities.

When the contract between the UMWA and Pittston expired in February 1988, Pittston terminated the medical benefits of 1,500 pensioners, widows, and disabled miners. This violation of a long standing social contract ignited a community-wide sense of outrage. Justice in the Coalfields documents the events that followed in southwestern Virgina, the heart of the strike and a right-to-work state.

Hundreds of state troopers are seen escorting "replacement workers" through the picket lines. Union members, their families and friends are shown responding with mass civil disobedience resulting in over 4,000 arrests. State and federal judges reacted with injunctions and fined the UMWA more than $64 million. These events are given context through conversations with the rank and file. Additional perspectives are provided by a federal judge, a public interest lawyer, the coal company president, and the public affairs director of the National Right to Work Committee.

Trailer

Flash Video

Reviews

"A compelling, timely, and important documentar. A must-see for anyone interested in one of the most important labor struggles of recent years." - Tom Zaniello, Professor, College Degree Program of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies

"A very powerful, accessible, and thought-provoking film that should provoke heated and fruiful discussion in the classroom." - Steve Fisher, Professor, Political Science, Emory and Henry College

"A provocative program that should be seen widely by lawyers and law students to help the profession come to terms with the way in which it tends to idolize the law. A lawyer cannot come away from the film without some sense that the issues of justice and and law are ambiguous, that justice and law are at best distant cousins." - Andrew McThenia, Professor, School of Law, Washington and Lee University

"An outstanding video that probes deeply into the different world views of coalmining families and coal operators revealing the consistent affirmation and motivation of community responsibility vs. individual freedom that undergird their adversarial positions. I highly recommend it for classes ..." - Barbara Ellen Smith, Sociologist, Marshall University

"Excellent organizing tool, especially for bringing disparate groups together." - Hilary Chiz, West Virginia Civil Liberties Union

"After witnessing this spectacle of pain and hardship, one wonders why there isn't more violence on the part of the workers and the mountain people of the coalmining region." - Robb A. Mitchell, Labor Education Service, University of Minnesota

Screenings & Festivals

Appalachian Studies Conference - Screening

Big Muddy Film Festival

International Communication Film and Video Festival - Gold Plaque Winner

International Labor Film and Video Festival - Screening

Peace and Justice Activists, National Organizers Alliance - Screening

Sinking Creek Film and Video Festival - Finalist

Southern Sociological Society Conference - Screening

West Virginia Film Festival - Screening

Women in Film - Screening

Stranger With A Camera

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:24:49 +0300

During the 1960’s, filmmakers from around the world came to Appalachia to document the dire conditions of the region’s poorest residents. Media focused the nation’s attention on economic justice and helped to lead to the declaration of the War on Poverty.

But the use of the striking images of poverty also raised questions about whether media-makers with otherwise good intentions exploited and perpetuated long-held stereotypes of Appalachia.

In 1967 this tension between media and community led to an extreme and tragic response, when eastern Kentuckian Hobart Ison shot and killed Canadian filmmaker Hugh O’Connor, who was in the region to document conditions of poverty.

An Appalshop film, “Stranger With A Camera,” revisits this tragedy as a way to examine the relationship between media-makers and the communities they portray in their work.

“Even though the film focuses on an incident that occurred more than 30 years ago, ‘Stranger With A Camera’ illuminates contemporary issues of identify and representation,” director Elizabeth Barret said. “And it represents my own quest for understanding, not only understanding the tragedy of the killing, but my own responsibility to my community as a maker of images.”

The one-hour documentary will include dozens of interviews with people involved in the tragedy--relatives of O’Connor and Ison, VISTA workers who were in Appalachia at the time of the killing, filmmakers, and journalists such as Calvin Trillin. Trillin was filmed reading a passage of the 1969 New Yorker magazine article he wrote about the incident and from which the film draws its name.

"The camera doesn't lie. It doesn't photograph something that isn't there...the television, the journalists, the writers, the college professors, the government people who came in...did bring about some changes. They brought it to the attention of the nation." - Anne Caudill, Whitesburg resident and widow of author Harry Caudill

"A camera is like a gun. It's threatening...it's invasive; it is exploitative, in terms of mass media, and it's not always true." - Colin Low, National Film Board of Canada and colleague of Huge O'Connor

"We make our decision to make a film that would show not only the achievements and glories and the American dream and so on but would show what was going sour and where mistakes were being made. We wanted to go to many places in this country where we thought people were being exploited. We thought one place that everybody knew about was Kentucky." - Francis Thompson, New York producer of Hugh O'Connor's 1967 film project

"And of course that misplaced attitude of "Save the Aborigines" is as old as the hills. It's been practiced throughout humanity's span of lifetime that people who think they are more sophisticated are going to come into the backward countries and make everything right. And that kind of thing had been going on in eastern Kentucky where the people from the northeast of the United States and elsewhere were coming down filming the bad parts to publicize that kind of thing. And that's the backdrop of what happened with the Hobart Ison situation." - Ronald Polly, Whitesburg attorney for the defense in Hobart Ison's murder trial

Yellow Creek, Kentucky

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:17:02 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1984 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Yellow Creek, Kentucky documents the efforts of the Yellow Creek Concerned Citizens to stop a commercial tannery from dumping toxic wastes into the creek that flows through their small community near Middlesboro, Kentucky. The program begins with residents describing a series of health problems in the community, moves to the process of unravelling the ties between local government and industry, and ends with a victorious election in which a bipartisan slate of concerned citizens take over the Middlesboro City Council.

Reviews

"Excellent for discussion of the environmental challenges facing many communities today, including the role of local politics.... Recommended for social studies, health, and science classes interested in exploring the value conflicts behind environmental issues." -Ron Eller, Department of History, University of Kentucky

"A very effective program about pollution and the fight of grassroots people to stop it, and a good illustration of how people who care can put pressure on government to stop neglect and indifference." -Jenny Wilder, Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network

"Excellent--an absolutely first rate documentary that is crystal clear in concept and content." -juror, Athens Video Festival

Screenings & Festivals

American Film and Video Festival--Finalist

Atlanta Independent Film & Video Festival--Honorable Mention

Athens Video Festival

Kentucky Educational Television WTTW/Chicago

Step Back Cindy

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:40:15 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis with Susan Spalding 1991 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Step Back Cindy is a documentary about traditional social dancing as a form of personal expression and a way of sustaining communities. The program presents traditional dance in the mountains as fluid and changing with its own unique character. Dancers in Fancy Gap, Virginia are shown square dancing without callers. Dante, Virginia dancers flatfoot and hold a cake walk to raise money for the volunteer fire department, and in Chilhowie, Virginia, folks are seen taking advantage of the opportunities for socializing that a community dance affords. The final segment features spontaneous dance and music by miner Clifford "Redbone" Steffey at a United Mine Workers rally near St. Paul, Virginia.

Reviews

"A delightful and valuable production." -Daniel Patterson, Curriculum in Folklore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Transcends stereotypical images of mountain dance and Appalachian culture to provide a sensitive investigation of the important role that social dance plays in mountain life, placing this tradition within its larger cultural context as it relates to issues of community, tradition, and change....includes priceless footage of an otherwise poorly documented tradition. I highly recommend this program to dancers, historians, and educators." -Gail Matthews, Professor of American Folklore, University of South Carolina

"The filmmakers' love and respect of Appalachia's varied and complex dance traditions shows in this fine sketch." -Jane Woodside, Center for Apppalachian Studies and Services, East Tennessee State University

"A great introduction to the 'old-time' square dances that flourish throughout the mountains. It deflates the myth of frozen traditions by showing the vitality and multiple influences of today's community square dances and demonstrates that a 'sense of community' continues to prevail in many rural areas." -Bob Gates, Director, Kentucky Folklife Program

Waterground

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:29:20 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Frances Morton 1977 Running Time: 16:00 Color

Walter Winebarger is the fifth generation of his family to operate Winebarger's Mill, a waterpowered gristmill located at Meat Camp, near Boone, North Carolina. He continues to grind flour and meal using a process that has changed very little since the mill was built a hundred years ago. In Waterground, water diverted from a nearby creek splashes onto a large, overshot wheel and brings the interior of the mill to life in a chain reaction of gears, belts, and grinding stones. As Winebarger fills bags with freshly ground flour, he reflects on the history of his mill and the social changes that have affected it. The simplicty of the mill and Winebarger's comments on the difficulties facing the small farmer are contrasted with a visit to a large General Mills plant in Johnson City, Tennessee where 44,000 bags of flour are produced every day.

Reviews

"There is no attempt here to put down mass production or take cheap shots at 'progress,' but one does lament the passing of this old way, of its attendant values, its reliance on the extended family, its closeness to and gentle use of the natural environment....Its use would be a treat for any audience of children through adults, but in the hands of a thoughtful educator there's no telling how far and deep the discussion could range. A lovely, stirring film." -Media

Screenings & Festivals

Atlanta Independent Film Festival

Big Muddy Film Festival--Honorable Mention

Greater Miami International Film Festival--Gold Medal

FILMEX, Los Angeles

Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute

National Educational Film and Video Festival

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Cash Award

San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival

Unbroken Tradition: Jerry Brown Pottery

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:28:20 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1989 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Jerry Brown of Hamilton, Alabama, is the ninth generation of his family to sit behind the potter's wheel and turn out churns, jugs, pitchers, pots, and bowls. Unbroken Tradition looks at the continuation of a family tradition that has had an impact on Southeastern potterymaking since John Henry Brown (Jerry's great- great-great grandfather) came from England to set up his potter's wheel in Georgia in 1800.

Unbroken Tradition follows Jerry Brown as he digs his own clay, prepares it with a mule-driven pug mill, works the clay into a twenty-seven pound churn on his wheel, and glazes and fires it in his wood-powered, groundhog-style kiln. Along the way, Jerry talks about how pottery has shaped the life of his family. Unbroken Tradition serves well as a jumping off point for discussion of the survival and changing roles of handmade crafts in industrialized society, the pursuit of alternative careers, the relationship between artisans and other types of workers, and strategies for maintaining connections to one's family history.

Reviews

"An elegant treatment of continuity and a man's love for his work and his art. While watching the film, I kept praying that Jerry's son would someday see pottery through the eyes of his father and carry on this wonderful tradition." -Bob Gates, Director, Kentucky Folklife Program

"Provides a warm, intimate portrait of Jerry Brown and his family, and attests to the continued vitality of the old clay clans that once worked throughout the South." -Charles G. Zug, III, University of North Carolina, Journal of American Folklore

"Laced with century old attitudes about life and pottery....thoroughly honest and captivating....worth watching twice." -Ceramics Monthly

Screenings & Festivals

Alabama Public Television

American Folklore Society

Athens International Film and Video Festival

Society of Ceramics Educators

Kentucky Educational Television

Sunny Side of Life

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:27:18 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Scott Faulkner, Anthony Slone, and Jack Wright 1985 Running Time: 58:00 Color

During the 1920s and '30s, the records and radio shows of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and sister-in-law Maybelle spread the music of the southern mountains around the world and earned the Carter family international fame. Sunny Side of Life celebrates the legacy of this country music dynasty by focusing on the Carter Family Fold in Maces Spring, Virginia--an old-time music hall founded in 1975 by Janette, Joe, and Gladys, the children of A.P. and Sara Carter. Sunny Side of Life features Saturday night performances at the Fold by such artists as the Home Folks, Red Clay Ramblers, and Hot Mud Family, as well as lots of flatfooting and clogging by the audience.

The film includes a history of the Carter Family and an examination of the way old-time music continues to be integrated into the life of this community.

Reviews

"A wonderful documentary." -Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

"A moving, spirited, joyous film." -David Holt, musician and host on the Nashville Network

"Surpasses any documentary I have seen in articulating the emotional ties which lie at the heart of old-time country music and the Appalachian experience." -Richard Blaustein, Director, Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, East Tennessee State University

"The music speaks in an infectious, unaffected way. Highly recommended." -Choice

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Athens International Film Festival

Ann Arbor Film Festival

Big Muddy Film Festival

Festival Internacional de Cinema/Figueria da Foz, Portugal

Film Festival Rotterdam

Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute

The Southern Circuit

UCLA Film and Folklore Festival

Struggle of Coon Branch Mountain

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:26:27 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1972 Running Time: 13:00 Color

In their efforts to better their children’s education, the residents of this small West Virginia community found themselves face to face with an unfeeling, bureaucratic political structure. The film documents their fight for a better road and decent schools, an effort that includes organizing the community, setting up their own school, and finally a march on the governor’s office. The film ends with a partial victory and determination to continue the struggle. It will be of interest to community organizers, as well as students of education, public policy, and rural issues

Reviews

"One of the finest examples of community school inclusion I have seen. This film helps to bury the false notion that undereducated mountain parents care very little about their children’s education." -Dr. David Mielke, Department of Secondary Education, Appalachian State University

"Provides an excellent base for discussion of problems in extending equal educational opportunities to all. Viewers will cheer the efforts of the residents of Coon Branch Mountain." -G. Bradley Seager, Jr., Coordinator, Learning Resource Center, University of Pittsburgh

Screenings & Festivals

Film Forum, New York

Movies in the Park, The Film Society at Lincoln Center

Museum of Modern Art

Pacific Film Archive

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Strip Mining in Appalachia

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:25:35 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Gene DuBey 1973 Running Time: 25:00 B/W

Strip Mining In Appalachia is an early Appalshop examination of the desecration of land and communities that is brought about by surface mining of coal. A mine operator’s opinion that environmental impact is minimal is contrasted with statements from people whose homes have been ruined by bad mining practices. Aerial footage is used to show strip mines while a biologist provides a scientific explanation of what this mining method does to the land.

Reviews

"A powerful exploration of the area’s most devastating problem." -The San Francisco Examiner

"Both informative and frightening...It will provide a stimulus for discussion that will aid students in developing their value systems." -Dr. Stanley R. Frager, Film News

"Good for the study of geography, economics, and ecology." -Nell Adkins, Morgan County Middle School, West Liberty, Kentucky

"Stimulating. Very useful and informative." -Tom Mooney, Crest Hills Junior High School, Cincinnati

Screenings & Festivals

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Pacific Film Archive

San Francisco Museum of Art

Sarah Bailey

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:24:17 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1984 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Sarah Bailey, from Bledsoe in Harlan County, Kentucky, is one of Appalachia's finest weavers and corn shuck artists. In this portrait she is shown working on her corn shuck dolls and flowers and teaching corn shuck art and weaving in an Elderhostel program at the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Sarah talks about her beginnings as an artist "in the Hoover days when money was hard to get ahold of," and the role of the Pine Mountain Settlement School in helping her establish a market for her work. She also discusses raising most of what she eats out of her garden, teaching herself to card and spin wool, and growing up in the days of a barter economy in the mountains.

Reviews

"From her corn shuck dolls and flowers to spinning wool and cooking the daily meal, Sarah makes every aspect of her life a work of art. This program is as much about sharing and Sarah's need to pass on her treasures to others as it is about the wonderful things that she creates." -Bob Gates, Director, Kentucky Folklife Program

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Ourselves and That Promise

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:21:36 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Joe Gray with Gene DuBey and Scott Faulkner 1978 Running Time: 27:00 Color

Four contemporary Kentuckians, James Still, Robert Penn Warren, Ronnie Criswell, and Billy Davis, discuss their work and its relationship to the environment in which they live. Ronnie Criswell reads his poetry over scenes of a drinking and brawling neighborhood in Louisville where he grew up, works reflecting both a cynicism and an affection for that environment. Poet and novelist James Still, filmed at his rural eastern Kentucky home, talks about his writing which expresses great fondness for and attachment to the region's land and people. Robert Penn Warren offers his reflections on how the world has changed since he was a boy in western Kentucky and recites some of his poetry about naturalist John James Audubon. Photographer Billy Davis displays his aerial photographs and is accompanied on a picture-taking flight in a small plane while he captures unique aerial views of the Kentucky landscape.

Ourselves and That Promise is a challenging introduction to the relationship of the creative spirit to its surroundings, be they natural or man made.

Screenings & Festivals

National Educational Film and Video Festival

Kentucky Library Association

Oaksie

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:20:30 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Anthony Slone 1979 Running Time: 22:00 Color

Oaksie is a portrait of eastern Kentucky basketmaker, fiddler, and harp player Oaksie Caudill. The film follows Oaksie through the steps of making a basket, from selecting the "right" tree, splitting and pressing down the white oak, whittling the ribs, to the final act of weaving the oak strips together. Throughout the film, Oaksie's fiddle and harp playing are interspersed with his making of the basket. His primitive style of playing evolved from early Baptist church music: each low action of the bow hits one note--the lead note or melody of the song--as when a human voice sings. Oaksie captures the feel and spirit of a man who has spent his lifetime surrounded by the beauty he has created in his craft and his music.

Reviews

"Oaksie is concerned with making baskets, not with maintaining some folkloric ideal of purity. The film shows the integration in real life of folk arts and the role of those arts in real life." -Journal of American Folklore

"Bears witness to the clear sense of pride and satisfaction this man feels both in his fiddling and in his ability to create an object not only practical but beautiful. Useful for study of folk crafts or Appalachian life." -Media Review

Screenings & Festivals

Columbus International Film Festival--Honorable Mention

FilmSouth Award, Converse College

San Francisco International Film Festival

Nature's Way

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:19:49 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: John Long with Elizabeth Barret 1974 Running Time: 22:00 Color

Most early mountain settlers did without professional medical help and learned to cure their own ailments using herbs, Indian folklore, and home remedies. As the people profiled in Nature's Way suggest, the practice of folk medicine has not disappeared from Appalachia. M.D. Machen is shown selling his cures in the traditional style of the patent medicine man while Scoop and Willie Westbrook talk about their remedies for flu. Etta Banks takes the viewer through the preparation of her family's special salve. Kern Kiser is seen preparing his cancer cure medicine and describes how it saved his wife's life. Lena Stephens, a midwife who's delivered more than 5,000 babies, chats about her work as she calmly delivers twins.

Reviews

"A fascinating, technically excellent, and uplifting film which underscores the valuable contributions being made by senior citizens in rural communities." -Judith Trojan, Aging: A Filmography

"Charmingly chronicles the use of old-time cures and remedies." -Newsweek

"At a time when we are beginning to question many aspects of our sophisticated medical establishment, we are reminded by such films that men and women have cared for themselves with great success since time immemorial." -The Lactation Review

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Film Festival Rotterdam

Film Forum, New York

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Pacific Film Archive

Mud Creek Clinic

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:19:00 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1986 Running Time: 29:00 Color

The Mud Creek Clinic is a primary health care center that was started in 1973 by a community in Floyd County, Kentucky with the idea that health care is a right, not a privilege. This program describes the formation of the clinic, explores the feelings among patients and community members that the clinic belongs to them, and draws a portrait of clinic director Eula Hall. Hall has long been involved in community struggles in eastern Kentucky, from the fight for a school lunch program in Floyd County to UMWA picket lines in Harlan County. Mud Creek Clinic depicts the clear and passionate victory of a community in organizing and maintaining health care for all its people.

Reviews

"Presents an excellent example of what a rural health care delivery system should be. Also underscores the positive role a community can play in improving health care when they are welcomed and involved in their local clinic. Essential viewing for anyone in medical school or a nursing program who plans to work in a rural area." -Dr. Artie Ann Bates, Physician, Leatherwood (Kentucky) Clinic

"Eminently lucid and captivating....A sobering and compelling rendition of a grassroots success story in Appalachia...an exceptionally valuable vehicle for learning about the people and conditions of this region." -Gifford S. Nickerson, North Carolina State University, in Science Books and Films

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Video Festival

Columbus Video Festival--Blue Ribbon, Documentary

Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival

Science Books and Films Science Film Festival

Mabel Parker Hardison Smith

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:17:36 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1985 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Mabel Parker Hardison Smith is a black Appalachian who taught school for over 35 years in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky. Beloved by students from several generations, she is also well known for her musical abilities as organist for her church and a local gospel group. Full of humor and vitality, Mabel Smith speaks eloquently about her family’s history in the deep South, their migration to the mountains, and life in the segregated coal camps. Widowed while pregnant with her third child, she describes how she went to college and became a teacher despite personal and financial difficulties. Mabel’s story is that of a strong woman whose dignity, conviction, and faith saw her through some very difficult times.

Reviews

"Smith articulately recollects the life of a black miner’s family while archival and personal photos fascinatingly illustrate her colorful narration. An appealing character study for public library audiences and special interest groups and classes." -Booklist

"Literally hundreds of African-Americans from Appalachia who’ve left their ’footprints in the sands of time’ admit readily that they were standing on the shoulders of great teachers in the area’s ’colored’ schools, teachers like Mabel Parker Hardison Smith. I thank God for the ’Mabels in the Mountains.’" -William Turner, Department of Sociology, Winston-Salem State University

Screenings & Festivals

Anthros ’87/The Barbara Myerhoff Film Festival

Atlanta Independent Film

Evelyn Williams

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:14:36 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1995 Running Time: 27:40 Color

Evelyn Williams is a portrait of a woman who is many things: a coal miner's daughter and wife; a domestic worker and mother of nine; a college student in her 50s and community organizer; an Appalachian African American. Above all, she is a woman whose awareness of class and race oppression has led her to a lifetime of activism. Now in her 80s, she is battling to save her land in eastern Kentucky from destruction by a large oil and gas firm.

With humor, eloquence, and at times anger, Evelyn tells her story. Her family came to eastern Kentucky in 1922 when she was six years old. She remembers the Klan burning a cross on the mountain and describes the sense of powerlessness that followed a lynching for which the murderers were never arrested. She married a coal miner and later moved to West Virginia where her daughters were able to attend college.While her husband worked in the mines and helped organize the union, she cleaned the homes of coal company bosses. When the mines mechanized and laid off workers, the family moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. where Evelyn studied at the New School for Social Research and became active in efforts to improve her community. Her commitment to fight for justice and equality was deepened when her son was killed in Vietnam and the U.S. military misinformed and mistreated the family. Following retirement in the early 70's, Evelyn and her husband returned to a piece of family land in Kentucky. Most recently, she has been a leader of a grassroots effort by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth to end oil and gas company use of the broadform deed to drill on surface owners' land without their permission. In explaining her determination to preserve her land, she recalls her grandfather, an ex-slave, who said, "Take care of the land. Take care of the land. As long as you have land, you have a belonging." The program portrays a fascinating and dynamic personality whose keen sense of communal and family history influences her determination. Through her story, Evelyn makes important connections between civil rights, women's rights, and environmental concerns.

Reviews

"A concise and moving portrayal of an activist...Richly suggests the steadiness with which the Black working class has attended the flame for justice and equality. I enthusiastically endorse this film for purchase." - John McCluskey, Chair, Afro-American Studies Department, Indiana University

"Whether on a sit-down strike in Kentucky, or raising community issues in Harlem, this spirited woman holds her life together with a slender thread of indestructible courage." - Catherine Rankovic, Professor, African

Screenings & Festivals

Black Maria Film Festival '95 - Juror's Choice Award

Charlotte Film Festival '96 - Screening

Kentucky Educational Network '96 - Screening

Louisville Film

John Jacob Niles

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:12:32 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Bill Richardson with Mimi Pickering and Ben Zickafoose 1978 Running Time: 32:00 Color

John Jacob Niles is a portrait of the adding machine repairman who came to eastern Kentucky in 1909, "heard the songs [his] father sang," and became a much-noted "arranger, expander, collector, recorder, and performer" of traditional Appalachian ballads. Niles played an important part in the national "discovery" of Appalachian folk music. He describes how, during the 1920s and '30s, he and photographer Doris Ulmann travelled the mountain region--she taking pictures of the people and he learning their songs. The film shows Niles in concert, at home, at work arranging his music, and explaining the historical place of balladry in American music.

Reviews

"This remarkable 86-year-old performer is an artist of unique insight, as this affectionate film clearly shows....it is a rewarding experience to come to understand the man and his music." -Media and Methods

"The film captures the essence of his art and music. A rare visit with a great man." -Raymond McClain, Berea College

Screenings & Festivals

American Folklore Society

Big Muddy Film Festival--Honorable Mention

FILMEX, Los Angeles

In the Good Old Fashioned Way

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:48:38 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1973 Running Time: 29:00 Color

The Old Regular Baptist Church is one of the oldest denominations in the Appalachian mountains, and its followers cherish its traditional practices and its sense of everlasting values in a changing world. Widespread only among mountain people, this religion is uniquely a product of Appalachian culture. In The Good Old Fashioned Way captures the spirit and faith of the people of this church and the impact of their religion on their lives. The film documents a riverside baptism, foot-washing ceremonies, an Association Meeting, the music of the church, and Memorial Services held at a family cemetery.

Reviews

"An exemplary educational resource for those interested in religion, ritual, and culture." -John H. Westerhoff, III, Professor of Religion and Education, Duke University Divinity School

"An unassuming, uncritical and enthusiastic first-hand view of grassroots Protestantism for audiences in public libraries, religious institutions, and anthropology and comparative religion classes." -Booklist

"I used it for an introductory class in religious studies to provide a thought-provoking background for the discussion of varieties of religious expression. It was superb." -Gilbert L. Johnston, Comparative Cultures Collegium, Eckerd College

"Breaks down the negative stereotype of the fundamentalist....Excellent for discussion of the beauty of the spoken word as its language is both simple and elegant." -Joan Boyd Short, Powell Valley High School, Big Stone Gap, Virginia

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University

International Festival de Cinema/Figueira da Foz, Portugal

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Pacific Film Archive

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:47:18 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1997 Running Time: 22:00 Color

Nowhere is health care a more serious concern than in rural America. Corporate mergers, hospital closures, the move to managed care, failure to recruit and retain health professionals, and the outmigration of patients to large urban centers are threatening already fragile health systems and economies in small communities. Yet this decline can be turned into an economic and health care success when local providers and community residents work together to create health services that the community wants and supports.

“Healthy, Wealthy & Wise: Improving Rural Health Care & Rural Economies” demonstrates to business and civic leaders, public officials, health care providers and consumers just how vital local health care is to rural economic development. Each year, the average rural county generates $73 million from health care. Unfortunately, over 50% of those health care dollars go right out of town to the big city. This video program shows how to keep more of those dollars at home and improve local health care in the process.

Reviews

“Strong economies absolutely depend on good health care, and this video is a great tool to help communities increase both local jobs and health care.” ~ Tim Size, Executive Director, Rural Wisconsin Hospital Cooperative & 1997-1998 President, National Rural Health Association

“The Program does a great job of introducing the idea of rural health and community solutions and makes for a very good presentation at any number of community and extension functions.” ~ Marvin Konyha, Program Leader, USDA Cooperative Research, Education, and Extension Service

“Both a marvelous illustration of the impact and power of rural residents and health providers advocating in an organized fashion on behalf of their local needs and wishes, and of the economic impact of the local health care system on the overall economy of rural communities. Both of these issues are central to understanding the challenges and the opportunities facing rural health systems and rural communities in this reform era.” ~ Bruce Amundson, M.D., & 1998-1999 President of the National Rural Health Association

“A compelling tool to use with community economic development groups for a discussion centered around the economics of health care in rural areas. As a rural resident, I thought the video compassionately and respectfully represented rural people.” ~ Sarah L. Patrick, MPH, PhD, Director, Institute of Rural Health Studies, College of Health Professions, Idaho State University

“We have used ‘Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise’ numerous times at civic clubs, with County government, at our Economic Development Corporation and Chamber of Commerce, our Board of Trustees, and at our Strategic Planning Retreat. In spite of the fact that the communities portrayed are not exactly like ‘our’ community, everyone connects with the concept being presented. Perhaps the biggest impact of the video’s message was with our County Board of Supervisors. They had heard, but did not appreciate, the delicate condition of their only acute care hospital. After showing the video, I provided them with the total economic value of all the medical services in the County, and the impact on that value if the hospital closed. We got their attention, fast.” ~ Edward C. Bland, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer, Colusa Community Hospital

Hand Carved

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:45:06 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1981 Running Time: 88:00 Color

Chester Cornett has made chairs for Presidents and his work is displayed in museums across the country. In Hand Carved, Chester fells a tree on the site of his family's homeplace near the top of Pine Mountain in southeastern Kentucky and transports it back to his small apartment/workshop in inner-city Cincinnati. Intricate camerawork illustrates the process Cornett uses to chop, whittle, and carve the wood into an exquisite, eight- legged, "two-in-one" rocker designed for the film. Cornett tells the story of his apprenticeship with his grandfather and uncle, and the personal and economic reasons he left the mountains. Chester reveals the precarious life of an artist struggling to survive in a society accustomed to mass production when he states, "I've traded a chair many-a-time for groceries."

Reviews

"A remarkably sustained series of privileged moments....a lovely machine-made tribute to fading handmade craftsmaking." -Gary Arnold, The Washington Post

"There are times when you realize that the entire world and even universe is no larger than the spirit and mind of a single human being. Hand Carved was for me the occasion of such a time. The film's spirit is about a single human whom, it seems to me, not even the galaxy could humble if it fell on him in one great heap....Chester Cornett is a hero, a gentle survivor of hard times, bad luck, lost love and a kitchen that must be the most colossal mess of any place outside the Federal budget office." -Karl Hess, philosopher, craftsman, and author of Community Technology

"In the age of computers and nuclear power, Hand Carved will build an awareness and appreciation of the craftsmanship that reflects another time. The fact that Cornett hopes this film will interest the young in apprenticing for the trade will act as an interesting springboard for discussion." -Voice of Youth Advocates

Screenings & Festivals

The Learning Channel

Columbus International Film Festival--Honorable Mention

Dayton Art Institute

San Francisco International Film Festival

Girls' Hoops

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:43:44 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Justine Richardson 1998 Running Time: 27:12 Color

In Kentucky, basketball is a cultural obsession. The enthusiasm of Kentucky fans permeates every community in the state. Communities draw a sense of pride and identity from successful high school teams, and people support these teams by the thousands, especially in the rural, Appalachian mountain region of the state. In the towns of Whitesburg, Jenkins, and Hazard, girls teams dominate the basketball spotlight.

Of special interest amidst the debate over the value of Title IX support for women’s athletics, Girls' Hoops explores the history of girls’ high school basketball in Kentucky -- from its first heyday in the 1920s, followed by a 42-year ban on statewide competition, to its rebirth in the 1970s and development into the fiercely competitive, popular sport it has become today. Filmed over the course of a basketball season, the program features exhausting practices, intense games, rousing half-time talks, championship performances and enthusiastic fans from small coal mining communities where a winning girls team is the talk of the town. Girls’ Hoops includes up-close interviews with today’s players and coaches, comments from a 94-year old player from a 1920s championship team, and interviews and game footage of the woman who broke the gender barrier in the mid-‘70s.

Reviews

“A brilliant film that fully captures what women’s basketball has meant and continues to mean to women athletes everywhere.” --Dr. Lynda Ransdell, University of Kentucky

“Like the game itself, Girls’ Hoops is fast paced and replete with human drama.” ~ M Magazine

“I really like this film. What struck me immediately about Girls’ Hoops was the poignancy of the women’s comments on their sports experience. Their responses were haunting.” ~ Dr. Jennifer Crispen, Sweet Briar College

Screenings & Festivals

American Association of Health, Physical Recreation, and Dance - Screening 4/99

American Sociological Association - Screening '99

Athens Film Festival - Screening ‘99

Big Muddy Film Festival - Screening ‘99

East Lansing Film Festival – Screening ’99

Hazard Historical Society/Bobby Davis Museum - Screening 2/99

Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Recreation, and Dance - Screening ‘98

Kentucky Foundation for Women - 3/99

Louisville Free Public Library – Screening ’99

Louisville Film & Video Festival, Juror Award - Screening 11/99

Nashville Independent Film Festival - Screening ‘99

OVERMAC - Screening ‘98

University of Louisville - Screening ’99

University of Pennsylvania – Screening ’98

WorldFest, Houston International Film Festival – Silver Award, Sports Division ‘99

Fat Monroe

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:40:14 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Andrew Garrison 1990/1991 Running Time: 14:00 Color

In this narrative film, Ned Beatty plays the title role of Fat Monroe, a gruff, unshaven mountain man with the gift of gab and a merciless sense of humor. He offers a ride in his pick-up truck to nine-year-old Wilgus Collier (played by William Johnson in his film debut). Most of the film is a battle of wits between the overwhelming Monroe, who seems to twist everything the boy says, and the steadfast Wilgus, who stands up to Monroe's devilment. By the end of his ride, Wilgus's notion of truth and trust in the adult world is changed forever. As critic Linda Dubler writes, "There's something of a rite of passage in Wilgus's ride, something too about the cruelties of adults and the joys of storymaking." Fat Monroe is based on a short story by Gurney Norman from his collection Kinfolks. The video version of Fat Monroe comes with a fifteen minute interview with this important Kentucky writer in which he discusses his literary influences and the importance of place in his writing.

Reviews

"Hilarious, not-to-be-missed...a pint-sized classic." -Vincent Canby, The New York Times

"A deceptively simple story....Show it, however, to a class of fourth graders or even high school students and you will be made aware that it has an insightful meaning if your adult eyes and mind haven't made that occur to you already. Recommended for schools, libraries, television and whatever." -Rohanna Lee, Sightlines

"Superbly acted and beautifully photographed....Elementary age viewers will identify with Wilgus' discomfort at adult teasing; older viewers will appreciate the rite of passage as Wilgus gets a glimpse into the strange world of adulthood. Literature classes will be able to use this presentation as a prime example of the short story form. Viewers of all ages will enjoy this quality production." -Shelly Glantz, Arlington (Massachusetts) High School, in School Library Journal

"Sketches a peculiarly down-home character in subtle and revealing shades....both a joy to watch and a folksy corrective to redneck cliches." -Atlanta Journal and Constitution

"A blueprint for what a short dramatic film should be. It's focused, direct, and perfectly accurate in its details." -Linda Dubler, Afterimage

Screenings & Festivals

New York Film Festival

Atlanta Film

Catfish: Man of the Woods

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:39:40 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Alan Bennett 1974 Running Time: 27:00 Color

Clarence "Catfish" Gray is a fifth-generation herb doctor living near Glenwood, West Virginia. In this day-in-the-life visit, Catfish reads letters from around the world seeking health advice, gathers herbs and roots from the woods around his house, receives visitors, and, finally, relaxes by skinny-dipping in a nearby stream. Running throughout the film is Catfish's constant discourse on his healing techniques and his personal philosophy of life. Fascinating as a character study, Catfish: Man of the Woods has also been used extensively in colleges of medicine and nursing and among health care providers to explore alternative methods of healing and cultural assumptions about medicine and health care.

Reviews

"A beautiful film, keenly observant and irresistibly appealing. It is difficult to imagine an audience that would fail to respond." -The Washington Post

"A fun film!...a real American character, full of malarkey, old wives' tales, and tall talk. A great film for library programs." -Los Angeles County Public Library System

"Good for public libraries and for use in senior high school and college language arts and social studies classes." -Booklist

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

American Film Institute, Washington D.C.

American Folklife on Film, University of Delaware

Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University

National Film Theatre/British Film Institute

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Bluegrass, Blackmarket

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:39:11 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Hans Luxemburger 1994 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Marijuana grows well in the Appalachian mountains. In many parts of the region it has replaced tobacco as the number one cash crop. Bluegrass, Blackmarket investigates the underground economy that has developed around marijuana cultivation in an economically depressed area of eastern Kentucky, and the official corruption that has accompanied it.

Bluegrass, Blackmarket gives the viewer an opportunity to hear from participants on all sides of the issue. A marijuana grower demonstrates his techniques for growing the plant and skirting the law. The area's prosecuting attorney describes his frustration with trying to convict growers in a community that has come to accept the marijuana trade as a way of life. Drug enforcement personnel comment on their efforts to win the war on drugs as state police and national guardsmen eradicate plants found in isolated cornfields. A local newspaper editor laments the loss of community pride that comes with dependence on an underground economy. Woven throughout the documentary is the story of a large-scale FBI sting operation that led to the arrest of four local sheriffs on drug trafficking charges.

Bluegrass, Blackmarket is an excellent case study of the destructive and corrupting nature of widespread dependence on illegal economic activity and underscores the difficulty of eliminating this country's "drug problem" as long as individuals have few viable economic opportunities available to them.

Reviews

"Good portrait of how economic forces influence people to break the law." - National Educational Film

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film

Chairmaker

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:38:28 +0300

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Directed by: Rick DiClemente 1975 Running Time: 22:00 Color

Chairmaker follows 80-year-old Dewey Thompson from Sugarloaf Hollow, Kentucky, as a rough-hewn rocking chair takes form under his experienced hands and well-worn knife. But this "how-to" film is as much about how to live as it is about how to make a chair. Thompson's philosophy and insights into his character are gently interwoven with the depiction of his work. For the student of folk culture, the film provides a rare opportunity to see a folk artist creating his craft in the context of his everyday life. In addition, Chairmaker offers a glimpse into the past, for Dewey Thompson embodies both the skills and values that were once widespread throughout rural America.

Reviews

"A tour de force....Anyone of any age wanting to stay young should see this relaxed film....Dewey's is the kind of individual enterprise that makes a man along with a chair." -Film News

"The tone and pace of the film match the personality of Dewey Thompson and the rhythm of his work--unhurried, uncluttered, understated....Chairmaker is a fine demonstration of folk craft and a warm portrait of an Appalachian highlander." -William Lightfoot, Appalachian State University, -Journal of American Folklore

"In an amazing demonstration that begins with the chopping down of one tree and ends in a beautifully crafted rocking chair, Thompson shows off his skills while carrying on a casual and thoroughly winning conversation with the camera. A delightful visit." -The (Louisville) Courier-Journal

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Birmingham International Educational Film Festival--Finalist

Columbus International Film Festival--Chris Bronze Plaque

Festival of American Folklife, Smithsonian Institution

International Festival of Documentary

Red Fox: Second Hangin'

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:44:01 +0400

Directed by: Don Baker 1984 Running Time: 90:00 Color

Now Available on DVD!!!

A video version of Roadside Theater's highly acclaimed play, Red Fox/Second Hangin' is the story of M.B. "Doc" Taylor, called "the Red Fox"--a red-headed, red-bearded, highly popular preacher, doctor, philosopher, mystic, and U.S. Marshall. His execution, the second in the history of Wise County, Virginia, followed that of a local troublemaker. Both had been implicated in murders resulting from a feud that began during the Civil War. The hangings kicked off a law-and-order campaign that Northern speculators considered essential to expanding their coal mining operations in turn-of-the-century Appalachia. Onstage, Roadside Theater actors Gary Slemp, Frankie Taylor, and Don Baker recount this historical tale, adopting different voices and personae, and weaving economic and political tensions into a family saga. The program was recorded before an audience in Carcassonne, Kentucky.

Reviews

"Intensely local, Red Fox/Second Hangin' has universal implications--and appeal." -Pat Aufderheide, In These Times

"A sophisticated, technically daring work." -Christopher Hudgins, Department of English, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

"Red Fox/Second Hangin' has more to say about the history of rural America than any five history books." -Theater Times

"Each of the performers is an expert in telling tall tales, melding regional accents, local references, and topical humor....The camera surefootedly tracks the performers' verbal ballet, never losing the link between them and the audience." -Video Times

"A good film to use with students doing storytelling. My own 8- year-old daughter wants to watch it again and again." -Judy Meadows, Librarian, Grays Branch (Kentucky) Elementary School

Screenings & Festivals

KCET/Los Angeles

Ralph Stanley Story, The

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:56:28 +0400

Directed by: Herb Smith 2000 Running Time: 82:00 Color

Ralph Stanley's Story is a portrait of the Grammy award-winning bluegrass great and star of the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. For over 50 years, Ralph Stanley’s banjo playing, haunting tenor voice and tradition-inspired repertoire have epitomized old time bluegrass music. This documentary explores Stanley’s musical roots in the Clinch Mountains of Virginia, the early days of The Stanley Brothers, and Ralph’s decision to continue on after the untimely death of brother Carter. Interviews with Ralph, former band members, and fellow musicians like Patty Loveless and Dwight Yoakum are intercut with live performances of such songs as "Rank Stranger," "Pretty Polly," and "Man of Constant Sorrow." Ralph also performs with Larry Sparks and Ricky Skaggs at his annual “Hills of Home Bluegrass Festival.”

The Stanley sound is true old-time, mountain style bluegrass music. This film tells Ralph’s story through interviews with those who know him best.

Reviews

“Featuring fabulous performances, Smith takes us on a delightful, old-time music journey.” – Northwest Film Center, Portland Art Museum

The documentary succeeds admirably… It captures the quiet conviction and uncompromising integrity that enabled this American musician to become one of the folk masters of our time.” – Bill C. Malone, author, Country Music, USA

If you love the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, see the story of the man whose spare, ardent music served as its template.” -- Minneapolis City Pages

Screenings & Festivals

Gene Siskel Film Center, Art Institute of Chicago

Barbican Art Center, London, England

Experience Music Project, Seattle

Folk Alliance Conference

Northwest Film Center, Portland Art Museum

Ozark Foothills Film Festival

Sound/Unseen Film Festival, Minneapolis

West Virginia International Film Festival

Applewise

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:54:17 +0400

Directed by: Anthony Slone 1997 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Applewise is an insider's portrait of the Mullins family, third generation apple growers, and their struggle to maintain and manage one of only two remaining family-run apple orchards in Wise County, Virginia. The program follows the growing seasons as family members try to keep the orchard business profitable while struggling with pesticide issues and sustainability. Others look to the coal industry to strike it rich, and valuable orchards are strip mined and destroyed. The documentary explores issues of self-sustainable agriculture and sustainable land management, corporate competition, pesticide use and family unity.

In following Roy Mullins, his parents, and his brother in their attempts to make a go of the apple business, Applewise tells the story of a family that is on one hand extraordinarily industrious and inventive, but on the other hand not unlike most American families who are trying to seize the opportunities around them, to earn a living, and look after the next generation.

Reviews

“Anthony Slone's documentary "AppleWise" looks at the 'death' of business for once-thriving apple growers in the Wise County, VA, area. I really like this one because it examines several generations of one family. The documentary ends with a poignant, tragic scene of the orchard - as the camera-angle widens and pulls back, the viewer sees the strip mining equipment in the distance and hears the roar of machinery. Good stuff for those who want to delve into social & cultural history as well.” ~ Darlene Wilson Director, Institutional Planning and Research Southeast Community College

Screenings & Festivals

WBRA/Roanoke Public Television

The Electricity Fairy

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:57:37 +0400

“The fight over the power plant in Wise County represents a larger struggle to define progress and development in American society as a whole.”-Dr. Ron Eller

Coal produces half of America’s electricity, according to the Federal Department of Energy. The energy policy currently before Congress identifies coal as a key to America’s "energy independence.” The Electricity Fairy is a documentary that examines America's national addiction to fossil fuels through the lens of electricity. Appalshop Filmmaker Tom Hansell follows the story of a proposed coal-fired power plant in the mountains of southwest Virginia, connecting the local controversy to the national debate over energy policy. Present day documentary footage is remixed with old educational films, connecting past policy to America's current energy crisis.

Strip Mining: Energy, Environment, and Economics

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:39:26 +0400

Directed by: Frances Morton and Gene DuBey 1979 Running Time: 50:00 Color

Strip mining accounts for over half of the coal produced in Appalachia as well as the region’s most conspicuous environmental problem. It forces people to choose between jobs and the beauty, ecology, and, in some cases, the existence of the mountains on which they live. Strip Mining: Energy, Environment, and Economics looks at the history of this controversial mining method, the citizens movement organized to stop it, and the battle to regulate strip mining that culminated in passage of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. Filmed during the midst of the energy crisis of the 1970s, the film retains its relevance as a U.S. energy policy based on unfettered consumption again comes into question and more people weigh the enviromental impact of their work and lifestyle. Recommended for studies of U.S. history, energy and environmental policy, economics, and ethics.

Reviews

"The viewer soon becomes aware that the lessons of economic history are seldom learned and that the route to common sense must be delicately balanced between regulation and reality." -Science Books

"Characterizes the controversy over strip mining as a public social drama...sets this issue into perspective through objectively selected and compiled interviews." -Booklist

"Poses a dilemma in social ethics very effectively. Good for any treatment of ethics and public policy." -Eric Mount, Professor of Religion, Centre College

Screenings & Festivals

Association of Media Educators in Religion--Golden Eye Award

Athens International Film Festival

Atlanta Independent Film Festival

Columbus International Film Festival--Honorable Mention

Belinda

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:55:07 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis
1992
Running Time: 29:00
Color

A native of eastern Kentucky, Belinda Mason was, as she says, "a small-town journalist, a young mother, a reliable Tupperware party guest" until she became infected with the HIV virus in 1987. She decided to go public with her condition and spent the rest of her life as a powerful advocate for AIDS prevention, education, treatment, and human rights.

In this program, Belinda talks about her own experiences dealing with AIDS and the support she found within her rural community: "AIDS is less about dying than about choosing how to live." Included is a presentation she made with her pastor to members of the Southern Baptist Convention: "People ask me if I think AIDS is a punishment from God. I can't pretend to fathom what God is thinking, but maybe we should look at AIDS as a test, not for the poeple who are infected, but for the rest of us." Belinda also comments on her role and responsibilities as a national spokesperson for people with AIDS, saying "One Bush Administration insider, when asked to explain the President's decision to bestow a coveted seat on the National Commission on AIDS on me, observed that I was 'palatable' -- like mashed potatoes and gravy." Funny, down-to-earth, and never self-pitying, Belinda speaks with a moving eloquence of our need for a collective response to AIDS which is not crippled by racism, homophobia, fear or ignorance.

Reviews

"Belinda Mason's warmth, wisdom, and determination has provided us with a legacy that should inspire us for decades to come. One of the many powrful insights she left us was that, in contrast to excessive and unreasonable fear of HIV, we should all be worried about losing our humanity by failing to respond, for, as Belinda said, 'In all our human history, there has never been a cure for that.'" - Dr. June Osborn, Chairperson, National Commission on AIDS.

"Belinda the AIDS activist, Belinda the healer, Belinda the talker, Belinda the narrator of this program, invites people to be open and unafraid and then demands, in her undermanding way, that they do the right thing." - Kate Black, AIDS activist, Lexington, Kentucky

Hands On: A Year in an Eastern Kentucky Classroom

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:50:03 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1992 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Hands On goes inside an eastern Kentucky classroom to examine the potential of a studen-centered, democratically run learning environment. Teacher Linda Oxendine-Brown and her 24 second graders are the collective managers of their classroom and the focus of this program, which chronicles their activities during the 1989-90 school year in rural Knox County. Hands On follows the children as they produce a weekly radio program; write, edit and publish a collection of short stories and non-fiction, enjoy an informal performance by some mountain musicians; plant tomatoes; and visit a classmate's farm. The program also includes Oxendin-Brown's visits to her students' homes and consultations with their parents.

Oxendine-Brown is shown using the Foxfire teaching method, which emphasizes democratic decission-making, hands-on experience, collaborative learning, and student involvement in the world outside the classroom. Hands On also examines her implementation of the whole language reading method, which stresses students choosing their own reading materials and learning to write by writing. Hands On is recommended viewing for anyone interested in school reform and the future of public education, teacher education, child development, and what it will take to help our children both do well and feel good about school.

Reviews

"Linda's students are excited about learning and learn much more than the second-grade curriculum calls for. Besides the obvious enthusiasm and joy in that class, the program reveals a thoughtful, skilled teacher employing a potent, demanding approach to teaching." - Hilton Smith, Director, Foxfire Teacher Outreach

"That one wonderful teacher and the loving parents depicted said more about real Kentucky values and the inherent skills and timid aspirations of our citizens than the many volumes I have read and program learning materials I have seen.... I really cannot say enough good things about the multi-layered messages in that show." - Virginia Fox, Executive Director, Kentucky Educational Television

Mine War on Blackberry Creek

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:45:06 +0400

In promotion of the DVD reissue of Mine War on Blackberry Creek, Appalshop is offering a web stream of the complete film.

Mine War on Blackberry Creek is now available on DVD.

Directed by: Anne Lewis
1986
Running Time: 27:00
Color

Mine War on Blackberry Creek reports on the long and bitter United Mine Workers of America strike in 1984 against A.T. Massey, America's fourth largest coal company with corporate ties to apartheid South Africa. While strikebreakers work inside the mines and security men with guard dogs and cameras patrol the compound, miners on the picket lines detail the history of labor struggles in the region and their determination to hold out until victory.

A.T. Massey CEO Don Blankenship, listed on AlterNet in 2006 as one of "the 13 scariest Americans," addresses capitalism, social Darwinism, and the global economy, while Richard A. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer and currently running for President of the AFL-CIO, expresses union values.

Reviews

"A vivid picture of the destructive nature of current social, justice, and economic systems." -Ntsiki Kabane-Langford, The Episcopal Church Center, New York

"A humanistic examination of a coal miners’ strike, the filmmakers let the parties involved speak for themselves, and no other commentary is needed. This strike resembles nothing so much as a war....Through it all, the importance of believing in what is right, and standing up for those principles no matter what the cost, comes through like a ringing bell." -Rod Granger, film critic and juror, Expo XXI

Screenings & Festivals

American Film and Video Festival--Finalist
Athens International Film and Video Festival
Big Muddy Film Festival
Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival
Global Village Documentary Festival
Independent Film

Thoughts In The Presence of Fear Pre-order

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:57:40 +0300

This is your chance to reserve your copy of Herb e. Smith's latest film, Thoughts In The Presence of Fear(title may change). Work is being completed on the DVD but no release date has been set as of yet. This is a chance to place your order now and have it shipped to you immediately after it is in-house here. Your card is not charged until we have received product.

Thoughts In The Presence of Fear is a visual companion to the essays that was written by Kentucky author Wendell Berry, in which he reflects deeply on the current sources of world hope and despair. . Written in response to the September 11th attacks, the essay has since been reprinted in 73 countries and seven languages. The film features a voiceover of the author reading from his work inter-cut with music, artwork, text, and moving images from the work of Herb e. Smith’s years of filmmaking

DVD extras are still being considered. As more information on the content of the DVD is figured out we will add to the information here.

Long Journey Home

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:23:04 +0300

Directed by: Elizabeth Barret 1987 Running Time: 58:00 Color

Long Journey Home explores the ethnic diversity of the Appalachian region, the economic forces causing people to migrate into and out of the area, and the choices individuals make to stay, to leave, and to come back. European immigrants recall the ethnic variety that existed in Appalachia during the first coal boom of the 1910s and '20s. African-Americans whose families left sharecropping in the South to build the railroads and work in the mines talk about the transition to life in the coal camps, and their later dispersal across the country as automation took their jobs.

Eventually, 3.3 million people left the region in search of work. Members of these families, people with deep roots in the mountains, talk about riding the 'hillbilly highway' on weekends and holidays and struggle to find a way to move back home and make a living. Long Journey Home is an important film for anyone contemplating the past and future of the American economy and the toll capitalism takes on individuals, families, and communities.

Reviews

"A damn good film." -Studs Terkel, author

"Highly recommended." -Choice

"Encountering prejudice against ’hillbillies’ and ’briars,’ difficulties in adjustment to the urban environment, the role of extended kin in easing adjustment problems, and the contrasts in men’s and women’s experiences are all touched on....provides excellent narration on the history of Blacks in the region. Useful for dealing with the effects of economic change, migration, and ethnic identity." -American Anthropologist

Screenings & Festivals

American Film and Video Festival--Finalist
Baltimore Independent Film

Beyond Measure: Appalachian Culture and Economy DVD

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:17:25 +0300

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1994 Running Time: 58:00 Color

There is a constant tension between the forces of an ever changing economy and need to have stable communities. All communities must have an economic base, yet changes in economic conditions can devastate a community. As technologies change, workers can lose their jobs and whole communities can be left without a stable source of income. Beyond Measure looks at specific examples of people wrestling with these challenges, the people of the Appalachian Mountains, the people of the Appalachian coalfields.

People in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains know how to survive hard times. Currrently thousands of coal miners are losing their jobs as a wave of newer and bigger machine moves through the coalfields. As jobs are lost, communities face an uncertain future. Beyond Measure places the present challenges in a larger historical context and document efforts of citizens to rebuild their communities. The beauty and challenges of living in the mountains are shown as the people describe their daily lives. Rather than a disembodied voice narrating the film, we hear the words and clarity and depth which comes straight from their own experiences. They describe how the mutual aid and suppot of extended families and attachments to the land are more important than the things economists usually measure.

Reviews

"'Beyond Measure' teaches us that paying jobs my come and go, but ultimately it is family, resiliency, and a sense of community that really counts." - Douglas Woolley, Professor, Department of Economics, Radford University

"A beautiful film about Appalachian people and their relationship with the land and its rich resources that are often owned by corporations elsewhere." - Loyal Jones, Former Director, Berea College Appalachian Center

Screenings & Festivals

Appalachian Development Committee Assembly Retreat '96 - Screening

Athens Film Festival Screening

Atlanta High Museum of Art - Screening

Center for the Arts '95, Vero Beach - Screening/Southern Circuit Tour

Clemson University, Clemson - Screening/Southern Circuit Tour

Down Home, Downtown: Urban Appalachia Today '95 - Screening

Duke University, Durham '95 - Screening/Southern Circuit Tour

Houston Museum of Fine Arts - Screening

North Carolina State University, Raleigh '95 - Screening/Southern Circuit Tour

Robert Flaherty Seminar - Screening

West Virginia International Film Festival - Screening

Western Psychological Association Conference - Screening

Pueblo of Zuni Rainbow Project '96 - Tribal Chiefs' Meeting on Environmental Issues

Up the Ridge

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:23:47 +0400

Format: DVD

Up the Ridge is a one-hour television documentary produced by Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby. In 1999 Szuberla and Kirby were volunteer DJ’s for the Appalachian region’s only hip-hop radio program in Whitesburg, KY when they received hundreds of letters from inmates transferred into nearby Wallens Ridge, the region’s newest prison built to prop up the shrinking coal economy. The letters described human rights violations and racial tension between staff and inmates. Filming began that year and, though the lens of Wallens Ridge State Prison, the program offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts.

Up the Ridge explores competing political agendas that align government policy with human rights violations, and political expediencies that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences. Connections exist, in both practice and ideology, between human rights violations in Abu Ghraib and physical and sexual abuse recorded in American prisons.

When I visited Wallens Ridge in the spring of 1999, it was new and as yet unoccupied. It felt like a house on moving day, all echoes and loneliness. What I found there was the perfectly evolved American prison. It was both lavishly expensive and needlessly remote, built not because it was needed but because it was wanted by politicians who thought it would bring them votes.
- Joseph T. Hallinan Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, 2001

The use of American correction executives with abuse accusations in their past to oversee American-run prisons in Iraq is prompting concerns in Congress. Mr. Armstrong, assistant director of operations in American prisons in Iraq…resigned last year after Connecticut settled lawsuits…with the families of two Connecticut inmates who died after being sent…to Wallens Ridge, a super-maximum security prison in Virginia.
- New York Times, May 21, 2004

Tradition

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:17:48 +0400

Directed by: Bill Hatton and Anthony Slone
1973
Running Time: 20:00
Color

Whiskey-making, one of the oldest traditions in the mountains, has been illegal since the end of the 18th century. Tradition is a portrait of Appalachian moonshiner Logan Adams, who began practicing his trade as a boy because "back then there wasn't any jobs...about like now." Adams discusses his vocation and why he continues to make whiskey despite having served a string of jail sentences for the practice. Adams’s story and family interviews are intercut with a federal revenue agent who describes the methods used by law enforcement agents to apprehend moonshiners. The film concludes with a tour by Adams of his still as he describes the whisky-making process.

This film will be of interest to anyone interested in the history of moonshining, the economic and traditional forces that motivate illegal whiskey making, methods agents use to get information, and the law and its penalties.

Reviews

"The moonshiner and the agent receive evenhanded treatment, and the film is more convincing and takes strength from its moral ambiguity." -Carl Fleischhauer, Journal of American Folklore

"Interesting for a discussion of the role of poverty in crime and for what happens when the law opposes folkways. Underscores the effect on an individual of a life outside the law." -Nadine Covert, Moral Choices in Contemporary Society Filmography

"Very well done." -F.R. Gerlach, Instructional Media Center, San Diego Schools

Screenings & Festivals

Film Forum, New York

Ozark Folk Center

Pacific Film Archive

Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Honorable Mention

Feathered Warrior

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:53:35 +0400

Directed by: Ben Zickafoose with Gene DuBey and Bill Hatton 1973 Running Time: 12:00 Color

Feathered Warrior portrays the widely practiced, but illegal, sport of cockfighting. The film opens with a slow motion sequence of a fight accompanied by a traditional tune played on a saw. Troy Muncie, a seasoned cock breeder and fighter who has won over 65% of his fights, outlines the rules of the game, describes the breeding techniques and fighting skills needed to win, and talks about why people enjoy the sport. Muncie is shown preparing a prize rooster for combat, and placing the rooster in the ring against its opponent. There the gaffs are installed, the two roosters face each other for the tease and the fight begins.

Reviews

"An excellent on-site view of an event few of us will ever see in the flesh." -Harry Gillingham, University of Cincinnati

Screenings & Festivals

American Folklife on Film, University of Delaware
Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University
Film Festival Rotterdam
Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Honorable Mention

Peace Stories

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:15:16 +0300

Directed by: Anne Lewis

28 minutes Color

In Peace Stories, three men from the South recount their war experiences and discuss it's affects on their opinions of war. William Farmer, a World War 1 veteran from North Carolina, describes the trench warfare and killing that took place after armstice.

Connie Bowling was recruited by the Department of Defense during World War 2 to train cyclonium operators in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where they were secretly making the enriched uranium that went into the first atomic bomb. He recalls the reaction at the plant when the news came that the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima and his own feelings on having particpated in mass destruction.

Jack Wright, a Vietnam veteran from southwest Virginia, talks about his feelings of responsibility for the death of a prisoner of war, and how difficult it has been for him to recover.

Peace Stories puts the study of war into a human context as it graphically illustrates the impact of war on the ordinary people who carry out the decisions of presidents and generals.

On Our Own Land

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:07:48 +0300

Directed by: Anne Lewis
1988
Running Time: 29:00
Color

In the Appalachian coalfields, broadform deeds were used, beginning around 1900, to sever the ownership of mineral rights from the ownership of the surface land. Although surface mining was virtually unheard of at the time most of these deeds were signed, Kentucky courts ruled years later that the owners of such deeds could strip mine the land without the consent of the surface owners. On Our Own Land chronicles the citizens’ fight to have the broadform deed declared unconstitutional in Kentucky.

The story unfolds through the voices of local people as the viewer meets a family determined not to move their father’s grave for strip miners, sees the rubble of a strip job "reclaimed" to the letter of the law, and watches as citizens protest strip mine abuses and push the state legislature for reform.

This powerful program is recommended for discussion of effective citizens’ movements and grassroots political organizing, the environmental and economic "tradeoffs" associated with coalmining and industrial development, and the difference that sometimes exists between justice and the law.

Reviews

"Illustrates a conflict that won’t go away, in which the texture of community is pitted against the drive towards profit at any cost. Scrupuously balanced, it lets coal operators damn themselves with their own words." -Pat Aufderheide, In These Times

"Excellent for use with social studies classes discussing political power and the power of people when they fight for what they believe in." -Anne Messer, South Laurel Junior High School, London, Kentucky

"Captures the spirit of the people, the land, and the struggle... gets the point across--legally and emotionally. Makes you want to become an active participant in the cause. Useful for ecological groups and others interested in the consequences of strip mining, courses on environment and social issues." -juror, American Film and Video Festival

Screenings & Festivals

1990 Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia University Award for Independent Broadcast Journalism

American Film and Video Festival--Finalist

Athens International Film and Video Festival--Award Winner

Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival

Kentucky Educational Television

KQED/San Francisco

WNET/New York

WTTW/Chicago

Open Windows

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:01:01 +0300

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1991 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Open Windows documents the celebrations of cultural diversity and community which took place in eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia in 1988. The program includes excerpts of performances by the New Orleans-based Junebug Productions; the modern/traditional African dance company Urban Bush Women; Roadside Theater, a theater company rooted in Appalachian folk culture and history; Appalachian African-American gospel singer Earl Gilmore; Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange, a company whose members range in age from 23 to 70; A Traveling Jewish Theatre of San Francisco; and Francisco Gonzalez, a Chicano traditional harp player, guitarist, and singer. Included are scenes from the school and community workshops that are part of the festival's philosophy of participation and celebration of local cultures.

Reviews

"An antidote to the contemporary right wing fear of creeping multiculturalism....A fine job of showing what happens when we open the windows separating the different worlds of America." -Video Rating Guide for Libraries

"Those libraries seeking cross-cultural music, dance, and theatrical performance will find Open Windows useful." -School Library Journal

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

Grassroots Small Farm

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:25:22 +0300

Directed by: Anne Lewis
1988
29:00 * Color

Grassroots Small Farm tells the story of 260 families in eastern Kentucky who banded together in a cooperative designed to make small, subsistence farms viable. Ervan Hontz, a VISTA worker, started the program in 1980 when interviews with hundreds of community residents showed their most pressing need to be "help with their gardens and livestock of some sort." Hontz explains how the project works: "Charity is so many times degrading. So we offer a loan. For a milk cow, I want a heifer back; for a sow, I want three young pigs. They're not only getting something for themselves; they're helping their neighbor by passing along the gift." Cooperative farm families are seen conducting project board meetings, building and operating their own greenhouse, and talking about their plans for expansion.

Reviews

"Best piece of work on rural community development that I have ever used. It gives a taste of rural America, and a real look at the way grassroots organizations work. It's a real picture of dignity." -Marvin Pippert, Asst. Professor of Sociology, Roanoke College

"One cannot help but admire Hontz and his activities on behalf of the small farmer. He truly has offered one man's solution to the economic depression of some Appalachian residents." -Kenneth C. Creech, Butler University, Southern Quarterly

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television
Blue Ridge Public Television
WSWP/Beckley, WV
WSJK/Knoxville

Morristown: In the Air and Sun

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:15:31 +0400

Running Time: 60:00
Directed by: Anne Lewis
Color

In this hour-long documentary, director Anne Lewis chronicles nearly a decade of change in Morristown, Tennessee, through interviews with displaced or low-wage Southern workers, Mexican immigrants, and workers and families impacted by globalization.

The film shows how working-class people in Mexico and eastern Tennessee are caught in the throes of massive economic change, challenging their assumptions about work, family, nation and community.

"Morristown" is in Spanish and English with subtitles.

"..brings the complex issue of globalization down to its human level -- where workers on both sides of the border, men and women, struggle to survive. In the film, the workers speak from the heart, whether in Spanish or English, and while there is poignancy in their stories, there is also inspiration as they challenge corporate power in cross-cultural solidarity." - Howard Zinn author of A People's History of the United States

Whippin' The Devil

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:15:07 +0400

Running Time: 27:00
Directed by: Anthony Slone
Color

In 1925, Guy Roberts was an impressionable 15 year old working in the pool halls of Pound, Virginia, racking games and selling moonshine whiskey. During the 1930s he took to hauling moonshine over the mountain to Kentucky. After taking part in a robbery he was forced to flee across America on the lam. The video weaves together Guy's descriptions of his journey, family photographs, and the banjo music of Dock Boggs, including the song "Prodigal Son." Like the young man in the parable, Guy returned home, faced his punishment, and "lived a good life."

Mountain Farmer

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:22:16 +0400

Directed by: Shelby Adams and Mimi Pickering 1973 Running Time: 9:00 B&W

Mountain Farmer is a visit with Lee Banks, one of the last of the old-style mountain farmers--a man who grew his own and "never bought." A horse and a wooden plow, a vegetable garden, and a few hogs sustain Lee and his family. A fine film for use in discussions of values, land use, rural sociology, aging, and the persistence of traditional lifestyles in the late 20th century.

Reviews

"Mountain Farmer is one of the most extraordinary documentaries I've ever seen. Its qualities of extreme simplicity and complete honesty combine with a very direct approach to its fascinating, often moving, subject matter." -Fred Camper, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"Fiddle music plays around scenes of the old man coaxing potatoes from the ground as he carefully guides plow and horse. With only the briefest of introductions, you like the old man, respect his independence, and wish his family well." -Tom Brom, Cineaste

"For any group desiring to appreciate what honest-to-God rural America is, they must see Mountain Farmer. We thoroughly enjoyed it." -Louis S. Meyer, Director, Institute for Community Services, Edinboro State College

Screenings & Festivals

The Art Institute of Chicago

Film Festival Rotterdam

Pacific Film Archive

Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Cash Award

Kingdom Come School

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:21:51 +0400

Directed by: Dianna Ott 1973 Running Time: 22:00 Color

The Kindgom Come School follows teacher Harding Ison and his twenty-two students as they work, study, and play together during a typical day at the last one-room schoolhouse in Letcher County. Students are seen doing cross-age tutoring, fixing lunch, working at the chalkboard, and receiving one-on-one instruction from the teacher. Ison's views on the value of one-room schools are contrasted with the county school superintendent's rationale for further consolidation.

Reviews

"It shows that there is more to education than new shiny buildings with indoor plumbing. This film captures the spirit of a true community school and a dedicated teacher." -Mike Mullins, Director, Hindman Settlement School

"Showing this film practically guarantees enthusiastic discussion; education planners and curriculum specialists, as well as classroom teachers, will be challenged by it." -Childhood Education

"No stronger case can be made for resisting overcentralization and mechanization of the schools." -Herb Kohl, author, The Open Classroom

Screenings & Festivals

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Janus Theater, Washington, D.C.

Kentucky Educational Television

West Virginia Conference on Alternative Education

Woodrow Cornett: Letcher County Butcher

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:53:51 +0400

Directed by: Bill Richardson with Frank Majority 1971 Running Time: 10:00 B/W

Woodrow Cornett: Letcher County Butcher follows an old-time mountain butcher, a master of his craft, as he goes through the intricate process of butchering a hog. Cornett's son-in-law, Frank Majority, provides a running commentary on the action, while Ashland Fouts supplies harmonica tunes and humor. Woodrow Cornett: Letcher County Butcher was one of the first films produced by Appalshop and continues to be a favorite for its simplicity and directness.

Reviews

"Woodrow Cornett's approach is so brisk and casually informative that you're likely to find a squeamish reaction turning into an admiring one before you can quite account for it...We simply watch a skillful man go about his job with consummate skill, learning a thing or two about one of the processes of life most of us can conveniently forget about." -Gary Arnold, The Washington Post

"A simply fascinating ten-minute picture telling how one man makes a living by butchering hogs and steers....I cannot convey in words how interesting this film is, made even more so by the harmonica music background that gives to this documentary much meaning." -James Child, New Haven Register

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Institute, Washington, D.C.

D.W. Griffith Film Festival

Museum of Modern Art

Manhattan Theatre Club

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Wild World of Hasil Adkins, The

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:53:37 +0400

Directed by: Julien Nitzburg 1993 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Imagine Elvis in Sid Vicious’s body with a little Frank Sinatra thrown in and you have Hasil Adkins, the originator of psychobilly and star of this deranged, shot-on-video documentary. Chronicling 56-year-old Hasil’s boozing, womanizing and law-breaking, audiences are treated to some surreal jaw-dropping antics and raucous, homegrown rock ’n” roll. Viewers will delight in the various ancedotes of paranoia as related by cronies, acquaintances and authorities.

Reviews

“A demented documentary about the ‘Father of Psychobilly.’ In 1956 when America was giving birth to Rock ‘n’ Roll, one man was already trying to kill it... The Breakdown: Hillbilly hollerin’, barrroom brawlin’, car-stompin’, organ smashing, wig wearin’, “shakin’ it”, commodity hot dogs, one-man band, the Hunch.” – Popcorn

“The granddaddy of all crazed rockers...’The Wild World of Hasil Adkins’ fits in perfectly with the downwardly mobile slant most of us white-trash seekers are looking for these days.” - Pleasant Gehman, Tinsel Toons, Newsreels

Screenings & Festivals

West Virginia International Film Festival

Whippin' The Devil Combo Special!

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:53:21 +0400

Appalshop is pleased to announce the release of it's newest DVD, Whippin' The Devil, and for a limited time get both the poster and the DVD all in one great deal!

Not only do you get the Whippin' The Devil DVD but you also get the Whippin' The Devil Poster! This beautiful poster was printed in Knoxville by Yee-Haw Industries. The poster is 16" x 23" and with offset and letterpress printing on cardboard. The image shown is a low resolution version but very similar to the actual posters. Ready to frame or go straight on your wall. Very Limited Run, Once they're gone they're gone!

War, Taxes, and the Almighty Dollar

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:52:18 +0400

Directed by: Joe Gray Jr.

30 Minutes Color

War, Taxes, and the Almighty Dollar looks at the relation defense spending has to a host of other problems in American society - the budget deficit, the trade deficit, the volatile dollar, factory closings, the farm crisis, local tax increases, citizen tax revolts, and the urban housing crisis.

UMWA 1970: A House Divided

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:51:33 +0400

Directed by: Ben Zickafoose and Dan Mohn 1971 Running Time: 14:00 B/W

In 1970, W.A. (Tony) Boyle was president of the United Mine Workers of America, under indictment for misuse of union funds, and suspected of the murder of Jock Yablonski (the most outspoken advocate for reform of the union) and his family. UMWA 1970: A House Divided intercuts a speech given by Boyle at a miners’ rally in Big Stone Gap, Virginia with scenes at a mine and interviews with working and disabled miners. The film contrasts Boyle’s statements with those of the reform movement then growing among the union rank and file. Recommended for classes in U.S. and labor history.

Reviews

"A first-rate film that captures the real spirit of rank and file coal miners fighting to clean up their union. It’s the kind of film that only people who lived with that struggle day in and day out could have made." -Don Stillman, United Auto Workers

"Presents the side of the Appalachian mine workers who feel the UMW hasn’t done much for them, and that no one but themselves can." -The Minnesota Daily

Screenings & Festivals

Museum of Modern Art

Walker Art Center

Tribute to Carl D. Perkins

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:51:21 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis and Dee Davis 1986 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Carl D. Perkins was sworn into office as representative of Kentucky’s mountainous Seventh Congressional District in January 1949 and was serving his 17th term when he died suddenly on August 3, 1984. A brillant legislative strategist and home-style politician who never seemed to forget a constituent’s name, Perkins served as chairman of the powerful House Committee on Education and Labor where he sponsored bills that established and expanded Vocational Rehabilation and Education Programs, the National Defense Student Loan Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Chapter I), and the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, which gave the federal government a mandate to protect coal miners and established the Black Lung Benefits Program. Most of A Tribute to Carl D. Perkins was videotaped in his hometown of Hindman, Kentucky as more than a hundred members of the United States Congress and over 3,000 Kentuckians paid their last respects.

Reviews

"Many people in eastern Kentucky can’t accept that he is no longer with us. Carl D. Perkins was truly a legend. This program shows an outpouring of respect for an approach to government that looks after the sick, the needy, and those folks who are down on their luck." - Mike Mullins, Director, Hindman Settlement School

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSJK/Knoxville

To Save the Land and People

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:50:35 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1999 Running Time: 58:40 Color

Strip or “surface” mining – where coal is blasted and scraped from the mountain surface – increased dramatically in the Appalachian region in 1961 when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) signed contracts to buy over 16 million tons of strip mined coal. Though cheaper for the buyer than deep mined coal, the damage done by strip mining was far reaching and had immediate impact on coalfield residents. To Save the Land and People is a history of the early grassroots efforts to stop strip mining in eastern Kentucky, where “broad form” deeds, signed at the beginning of the 20th Century, were used by coal operators to destroy the surface land without permission or compensation of the surface owner. The program focuses on the Appalachian Group to Save the Land and People, whose members used every means possible – from legal petitions and local ordinances, to guns and dynamite – to fight strip mining. The documentary makes a powerful statement about the land and how we use it, and how its misuse conflicts with local cultures and values.

To Save The Land and People tells the story of resistance in the voices of people who were directly involved and demonstrates the creativity and energy that indigenous and working class people bring to the environmental justice movement.

Reviews

“A wonderfully human and good humored presentation of a major tragedy. A downright truth-telling of a defeat without despair.” – George Stoney, filmmaker and professor, New York University

“Extraordinarily powerful… deserving of national and international recognition.” -- Herbert Reid, Professor of Political Science, University of Kentucky

“To Save the Land and People is by far the best portrayal of surface mining I have ever seen. A graphic exploration of both conservation and environmental justice" ~ Larry Wilson, Coordinator, Appalachian Focus

“An important contribution to the history of Appalachian resistance...very powerful...one comes away from the film keenly aware of the horrors of strip mining and why people fought back." ~ Steve Fisher, Professsor, The Appalachian Center for Community Service, Emory & Henry College

“Resonates with all the tragedy of the land and the people, and all the integrity of their struggle.” ~ Jude Binder, grassroots environmental activist

Screenings & Festivals

Austin Film Society, Texas Documentary Tour

South By SouthWest Film Festival

Louisville Film & Video Festival - Juror's Award

First Interstate Summit for the Mountains, Pipestem, WV

Three Mountain Tales

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:50:19 +0400

Directed by: Roadside Theater 1982 Running Time: 12:00 Color

Roadside Theater produced these mountain folk tales, illustrated with pastel drawings by Angelyn DeBord. Told in mountain dialect and accompanied by fiddle, banjo, and guitar, these stories are entertaining for young and old alike. "Fat and Lean" is a ghost story with a comic twist. "Little Fish Story" is a tale from the Smoky Mountains about friendship and the origin of rainbows. "The Big Toe" is the story of a little boy's encounter with a big, hairy goblin whose toe looked too much like a potato. Three Mountain Tales was originally produced as a filmstrip, but is now available exclusively in video. It is suitable for use with all ages.

Reviews

"Authentically told with verve enlivened by jaunty fiddle, banjo, and harmonica accompaniment....delightful interpretation of gems from America's oral tradition." -Media and Methods

"Three Mountain Tales is pure magic." - The Kentucky Post

Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:49:02 +0400

Directed by: Dudley Cocke, Anne Lewis, and Susan Wehling 1985 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Tell Me A Story, Sing Me A Song showcases the work of three theater companies that performed together in the mid-1980s to celebrate cultural pluralism and bring theater from diverse cultural traditions to underserved audiences. Members of Junebug Productions, A Traveling Jewish Theatre, and Appalshop's Roadside Theater are seen in this program in performance excerpts, interviews, and playing to a group of Calhoun County, Alabama fifth and sixth graders. The program explores how different cultural groups within the United States can use the performing arts to maintain and promote their own cultural identity while also addressing the mainstream. The American Festival Project, documented in the program Open Windows, grew out of this "Three- Way Tour."

Reviews

"The warmth of the audience response jumps off the screen....It's infectious!...Fulfills the highest expectations for art: it instructs and delights at the same time." -Christopher Hudgins, Department of English, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

"Shows wonderfully well what a true 'people's' culture might look like." -Doug Paterson, Department of Dramatic Arts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film and Video Festival

Kentucky Educational Television

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Strangers and Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:47:35 +0400

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1984 Running Time: 58:00 Color

Using funny, often poignant examples, Strangers and Kin shows the development and effect of stereotypes as technological change collides with tradition in the Southern mountains. The film traces the evolution of the "hillbilly" image through Hollywood films, network news and entertainment shows, dramatic renderings of popular literature, and interviews with contemporary Appalachians to demonstrate how stereotypes are created, reinforced, and often used to rationalize exploitation. Strangers and Kin suggests how a people can embrace modernity without becoming "strangers to their kin."

Reviews

"Any society is diminished when one of its segments is stereotyped or exploited. Viewing Strangers and Kin is not a provincial exercise. It is part of our growth as a viable democracy." -Wilma Dykeman, author and historian

"Excellent....Stimulating....Original in its presentation....Useful in classes on the topics of ethnicity and minorities, American culture and society, popular culture, and film." -George L. Hicks, Brown University, American Anthropologist

"There’s not a TV watcher or movie fan who won’t be surprised and enhanced by this lively and meaningful presentation on stereotypes we thought we had discarded 20 years ago." -Peter Wood, Professor of History and Film, Duke University

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Festival Internacional de Cinema/Figueira da Foz, Portugal

Hawaii International Film Festival

Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute

Western Psychological Association Conference

So Was Einstein: A Look at Dyslexic Children

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:46:27 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1988 Running Time: 29:00 Color

This program focuses on dyslexia, a learning disorder, as experienced by elementary and high school students, their parents, teachers, and tutors. Tutorial programs that offer one- on-one assistance are contrasted with regular classrooms and a special education class that seems to offer only frustration. So Was Einstein: A Look at Dyslexic Children focuses on four students and their families and describes the guilt, frustration, and misunderstanding that often come with having dyslexia, and the hope and increased self-esteem that come through hard work, sensitive programs, and caring personnel.

Reviews

"Presents a very human portrait of children and teachers grappling with an important but little understood condition." -Howard Gardner, Professor of Education, Harvard University

"Resources by which we can identify, describe, and reach for understanding of those different from ourselves are of great value. This is such a resource. I invite you--no, I urge you-- to invest 29 minutes of your time entering a world of children who are different from those around them." -Wilma Dykeman, author, historian, and columnist for The Knoxville News-Sentinel

"A gentle presentation with subtle and powerful messages about coping with dyslexia." -Choice

"Excellent for helping children understand learning disabilities." -Anne Messer, South Laurel Junior High School, London, Kentucky

Screenings & Festivals

Blue Ridge Public Television

Kentucky Educational Television

National Educational Film and Video Festival

Western Psychological Association Convention

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Sludge

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:42:59 +0400

Shortly after midnight on October 11, 2000, a coal sludge pond in Martin County, Kentucky, broke through an underground mine, propelling 306 million gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River into the Big Sandy. The Martin County sludge spill killed all aquatic life along 30 miles of river, damaged municipal water systems, and caused millions of dollars in property damage.

Appalshop filmmaker Robert Salyer follows the government agencies and community members through their clean up efforts and their attempts to understand the causes of a disaster thirty times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Filmed over four years, the documentary chronicles the aftermath of the disaster, the Mine Safety and Health Administration “whistleblower” case of Jack Spadaro, and the looming threat of coal sludge ponds throughout the Appalachian mountains.

“A shocking documentary…the film leaves this viewer with the conviction that without a public uprising, state and federal governments will stand with the energy corporations against the safety and welfare of citizens.” - Loyal Jones Kentucky Historian

“…a stark and unsparing look into the horrendous disaster and its tendrils…” - Stephen George LEO Weekly

“…a film that every resident of central Appalachia should see.” - William Farley The Mountain Eagle

Shelter

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:42:43 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 2001 Running Time: 56:40 Color

In 1974, three women opened the first shelter for battered women, in St. Paul, Minnesota. From this courageous act emerged a grassroots movement that has not only saved lives, it has changed the way Americans think about domestic violence. A mere decade later, in 1985, there were 700 shelters and safe houses, growing to approximately 1,200 today. Shelter traces this remarkable evolution and gives voice to five women seeking protection in a rural West Virginia shelter. Working with advice and guidance from the shelter’s counselors and staff, the women struggle to find safety, freedom, and justice for themselves and their children. Two founders of the shelter movement discuss its history while Tillie Black Bear from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota describes establishing the first shelter for women of color. Shelter challenges our national ambivalence towards issues of domestic violence and common institutional responses from police, the court system, and social service agencies, while highlighting a model program that offers a holistic and healing approach to the problem.

Running throughout the video is the cautionary note that the initial grassroots power of the movement has been co-opted, and the shelter network is in danger of becoming just another de-personalized institution. Shelter avoids the traditional television approach to domestic violence. Rather than examining why violence occurs, Shelter explores the lives of women affected by violence and follows them through the long process of navigating through the system towards lives of safety and dignity.

Reviews

“The film probes an enormously critical topic…All students preparing for careers in law, social services, health care, or education should consider the compelling issues raised by this film.” ~ Lucius Ellsworth, President, Appalachian School of Law

“I think it was an eye-opening video that everyone should see.” – Male student, University of Utah

“Useful in getting students to think about how the policy towards domestic violence has changed, but not always for the better. The film had an emotional impact that will prove useful in getting students to think critically about the issues raised.” ~ Dr. Elizabeth Clement, U.S. Women’s History, University of Utah

Screenings & Festivals

New Jersey International Film Festival

Philadelphia International Film Festival

West Virginia Filmmakers’ Festival

Appalachian Studies Conference

Roving Pickets

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:42:11 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1991 Running Time: 28:00 Color

The decade of the 1950s was a period of massive change in the coal industry. Small coal operators were unable to keep up with the mechanization taking place in large mines owned by auto, steel, and energy conglomerates and began to abrogate their union contracts to reduce costs. Roving Pickets looks at the consequences of this change in eastern Kentucky: severely reduced wages, chronic unemployment, families divided by out-migration, and, in 1961 and 1962, the cancellation of union health insurance benefits and the threatened closing of the UMWA hospitals.

In this program, miners, coal operators and other participants recall the sometimes violent battle over jobs, health care, and a voice in the political system that focused national attention on the economic crisis in the Appalachian coalfields and stimulated President Johnson’s interest in creating a "war on poverty." Roving Pickets raises questions about poverty and empowerment, equality of opportunity, and the process of political change.

Reviews

"Chronicles one of the most important resistance efforts of poor people in Appalachia...provides insight into the roots of citizen activism in the 1960s and into the political and economic barriers to democratic social change." -Ron Eller, Department of History, University of Kentucky

"Well worth seeing." -Bill Bishop, political columnist, Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film and Video Festival--Award Winner

Kentucky Educational Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

Rough Side of the Mountain

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:41:59 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1997 Running Time: 56:40 Color

Over the past twenty years, manufacturing plants and mining companies have closed throughout rural America, often leaving behind communities with crumbling infrastructures, widespread unemployment, and inexperience in self-governance. Such was the case in two hard hit southwest Virginia towns – Trammel and Ivanhoe. In 1986 Trammel attracted national attention as the “privately owned” town whose 50 homes, company store, post office, and water and cable systems were put on the auction block. Rough Side of the Mountain follows the story as local residents, mostly unemployed and disabled, organized with the help of churches and foundations to purchase the auctioned homes and “save” their town. In Ivanhoe, the program profiles the efforts of the Ivanhoe Civic League as community members attempt to rebuild after the loss of two major industries, the school, and local businesses. Rough Side of the Mountain looks at grassroots community organizing and the “steel ceiling” encountered by many poor rural communities as they struggle to develop new economies in an increasingly global system.

Reviews

“It’s lessons are universal and should be seen by everyone concerned with community renewal and social justice.” – Professor Hywel Francis, Adult Continuing Education, University of Wales, Swansea

“Sure to provoke heated discussion of the possibilities and limits of citizen efforts to rebuild their communities.” -- Dr. Stephen Fisher, Political Science, Emory & Henry College

“An unflinching look at the hard realities of community organizing in two towns that are representative of thousands across the country called home by America’s poor.” - George Stoney, Professor of Film/Television, New York University

“The limits of self-help in community development are poignantly revealed in this portrait of two small mountain towns in southwest Virginia, in the heart of Appalachia.” -- Pat Aufderheide, Curator, Council on Foundations 1998 Film & Video Catalog & Professor, School of Communications, American University

"An excellent job of portraying the big divide between community people and the experts...will have reasonance outside of rural Appalachia...captures what is happening in many places." -- Anne Romasco, Managing Director, James C Penney Foundation, New York

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film & Video Festival

Black Maria Film & Video Festival - Director’s Citations Award ‘97

Big Muddy Film Festival

Community Foundations and the Family Foundations Conference

Council On Foundations

Louisville Film & Video Festival

Western Psychological Association Conference

Ramsey Trade Fair

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:41:10 +0400

Directed by: Scott Faulkner 1973 Running Time: 18:00 Color

Wednesday is trade fair day in the small coalfield community of Ramsey, Virginia, where residents and local merchants gather to sell, swap, and pass the time. The Ramsey Trade Fair uses the flea market as a point of departure for a lyrical consideration of rural living and the lost art of barter.

Reviews

"Upholds the Appalachian values of fair play and driving a hard bargain, of independence and thrift, and of yarning, gossip, and good old country singing and religion... It may be used in studies of U.S. lifestyles in library film programs or in junior and senior high school social studies and economics classes." -Booklist

"This charming film presents a vignette of American folklore in a way that makes the viewer feel being right there." -Don Jewell, American River College, Sacramento, California

"Rich in humor and color." -The San Francisco Examiner

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Institute, Washington, D.C.

Conference on Visual Anthropology, Temple University

Kentucky Educational Television

Pacific Film Archive

Quilting Women

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:40:42 +0400

Directed by: Elizabeth Barret 1976 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Quilting Women traces the process of traditional Appalachian quilting, from cutting out and piecing together the patterns to the quilting bee. Quilters comment on the origins of the generations-old patterns, the time and patience required, the satisfaction of accomplishment, the quilts as art, and the companionship offered by women working together over a quilting frame.

Reviews

"Superb....a warm and joyful celebration of women artists, who with gentle modesty create works of art in textiles." -Yvonne J. Milspaw, Journal of American Folklore

"The viewer gains a vivid impression of quilting as a social activity which generates a feeling of community and a sense of pride and achievement among the participating women....Enthusiastically recommended." -Lawrence Levine, Department of History, University of California at Berkeley

"It is colorful, informative, interesting, and gives a delightfully human interpretation of this traditional craft. We have had nothing but positive comments from all who have seen it." -Lisa Reynolds, curator, Atlanta Historical Society

"This low-keyed tribute to a reemerging folk art will be a fitting addition to high school and college classes on folk life and folk arts." -Booklist

Screenings & Festivals

American Studies Association

Festival of American Folklife, Smithsonian Institution

International Documentary

Portraits and Dreams

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:40:21 +0400

Directed by: Andrew Garrison with Wendy Ewald 1984 Running Time: 17:00 Color

Portraits and Dreams documents an innovative photography project undertaken by schoolchildren from eastern Kentucky with the help of photographer/educator Wendy Ewald. Originally produced as a slide show, the videotape shows the beautiful and startling photographs made by the children of their families, their friends, their animals, and their dreams. Five of the young photographers comment on their photos and the life they describe.

Reviews

"A touching, memorable production. Viewers are privy to something very deep and meaningful as they are allowed 'to see something from the inside.'" -Media and Methods

"Stimulating and intriguing." -Booklist

"Beautifully done." -Judy Bryson, Wallins Creek (Kentucky) Elementary School

One-Ring Circus

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:38:52 +0400

Directed by: Andrew Garrison 1987 Running Time: 29:00 Color

One-Ring Circus is a behind-the-tents look at the life of the men and women who operate and perform in the Jules and Beck Circus. Interviews with the circus owner, concessioners, and performers are intercut with scenes of the big top going up and the show under way. Hard times for the circus in the age of television are in evidence everywhere, but the members of the troupe speak with humor, frankness, and occasional reverence about their work, each other, and life in a one-ring circus.

Reviews

"A fascinating study in personalities and characters that continue small circus traditions. The love and loyalty of these circus folk is poignant, and a powerful argument for love of life and talent....Nothing is romanticized in this documentary, but the romance of the circus and its people is compassionately revealed...Highly recommended." -Choice

Selected as one of Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Books and Nonprint Materials for 1987-1988

Screenings & Festivals

The Watertower, Louisville Visual Art Association

Kentucky Educational Television

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Mountain Vision

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:36:45 +0400

Directed by: Susan Wehling 1991 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Mountain Vision examines five innovative and sometimes idiosyncratic examples of "homegrown" Appalachian television. "Joe’s Show," a live music show produced and distributed out of Joe Engle’s basement in Viper, Kentucky is featured, as is the 1957 national series, "The Renfro Valley Show," producer John Lair’s romanticized vision of his mountain home and its music. The zany hucksterism of the long running "Virgil Q. Wacks Varieties" is explored through interviews with Wacks and scenes from his show, in which local businesses paid to be profiled, and everything including mine rescue teams, Hawaiian dancers, car lots, and roller rinks were presented in barely edited Super-8 montages held together by cheap glue and Wacks’ stream-of- consciousness narration. Also featured are East Tennessee video pioneers, Broadside Television, who in the early 1970s used inexpensive portable video equipment to put community events on the area’s first cable access channel. The program concludes with a look at "Headwaters," the Appalshop television series about the culture, politics, and people of Appalachia.

Reviews

"The history of television is short, and it needs more chapters like Mountain Vision. This program demonstrates that television can be used to focus on regional issues and strengthen a community’s sense of local identity." -Tom Whiteside, Film and Video Program, Duke University

"Gives a well rounded look at the subject of local culture. Students studying popular culture and American folklore will find this look at contemporary Appalachian lifestyle informative and entertaining." -School Library Journal

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

Morgan Sexton: Banjo Player from Bull Creek

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:35:53 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1991 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Eastern Kentucky's Morgan Sexton cut his first banjo out of the bottom of a lard bucket, and some seventy years later won the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Award for his "amazingly pure and unaffected singing and playing style." In this program, the eighty-year-old Sexton shares his life and music. He recounts how a series of family tragedies forced him to go to work while still a boy and tells of his days gathering crops, logging timber, cutting railroad ties, and of his later work in the coal mines.

Morgan and his nephew Lee Sexton talk about learning music from their elders and each other, and the old days when, after a hard day's work, they would "roll up the rug" to play music and dance with the neighbors. Intercut with these stories are Morgan's renditions of his favorite songs, including "Little Birdie," "Wagner's Lad," "Bonnie Blue Eyes," "London City Where I Did Dwell," and "Beautiful Doll."

Reviews

"Morgan Sexton has endured the Depression, cultivated a mountain farm and survived the hazards of a mining career with an impressive dignity and presence. He has also preserved a hauntingly beautiful traditional style of banjo picking and singing from a long gone era. He is truly a national treasure, and this wonderful portrait allows us to enter his life." -Loyal Jones, Director, Appalachian Center, Berea College

"His banjo picking is a delicate and absolutely individual version of the Appalachian two-fingered style, liquid and serene, each melody using its own particular tuning in the old-fashinoned way." -The Tenth National Heritage Fellowships, 1991

"A subtle, engaging program which provides the viewer with a clear sense of the relationship between Morgan's musical style, his personality and his family background....While folk music specialists will be particularly interested in the musical examples presented in this documentary, it will also appeal to teachers dealing with Appalachian studies, visual anthropology, oral history, and field collecting techniques." -Richard Blaustein, Director, Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, East Tennessee State University

Minnie Black's Gourd Band

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:35:37 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1988 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Minnie Black is ninety years old but she's still making music and art out of the gourds she grows in her backyard garden in East Bernstadt, Kentucky. In Minnie Black's Gourd Band, she talks about the secrets to growing good gourds then takes the viewer on a tour of her Gourd Museum, giving out tips on how to make gourd art while highlighting her favorite creations such as a double-headed donkey and the mythical "griffen" beast. The camera follows Minnie to "the World's Largest Gourd Convention" in Mt. Gilead, Ohio where fellow artists hail her as "the queen of the gourd people." Interspersed throughout are some lively and unique versions of hymns and old favorites played by Minnie and her Senior Citizen Gourd Band.

Reviews

"Not to be missed!" -Eric John, The New York Center for Urban Folk Culture

"Delightful story of a woman rich with love, joy of life, imagination and creativity." -Bob Gates, Director, Kentucky Folklife Program

"A wonderful tribute to a genuine American original." -Johnnie Prather, Coordinator, Older Americans Month Film Festival, American Association of Retired People

Screenings & Festivals

City Lore Festival of Film and Video, New York

Museum of Modern Art

Retirement Research Foundation--Silver Owl Award

WTTW/Chicago

Millstone Sewing Center

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:35:00 +0400

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1972 Running Time: 13:00 Color

The Millstone Sewing Center documents a highly successful community action program during the War on Poverty. Elderly seamstresses describe how they use Office of Economic Opportunity funds and Salvation Army hand-me-downs to make and remodel clothing for poor families in two eastern Kentucky counties. Comments from Center director Mabel Kiser on how she conceived of the Center and found a building, fabrics, and funding sources are intercut with scenes of the women at work. The seamstresses explain how the Center has provided them with an alternative to public assistance and talk about the effectiveness of social programs that grow from within a community.

Reviews

"Good coverage of a project which shows that positive steps can be taken even in poor, rural communities to give the elderly gratifying, paying work." -Judith Trojan, Aging: A Filmography

"Leaves you in a quiet fury, wondering about a government which can squander millions and then try to 'economize' by cutting back on small-scale local endeavors that actually help the people they were meant to help." -The Washington Post

"The film lends itself to discussion in high school where it may lead to a better understanding, and more respect, on the part of young people for the elderly everywhere." -Film News

Screenings & Festivals

American Library Association

Film Forum, New York

Films By Women/Chicago

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

U.S. Conference of Mayors/Focus on Aging Film Festival--Certificate of Excellence

Western Gerontological Society

Lord and Father

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:34:32 +0400

Directed by: Joe Gray, Jr. 1983 Running Time: 45:00 Color

Lord and Father documents the conflicting viewpoints of father and son over profitability and morality in the operation of a Kentucky tobacco farm. Integrated into this portrait of the filmmaker's father and the tenant family that works his land is an overview of the economic history of tobacco growing in the United States and of sharecropping, the social system allied with it. The film spotlights the bonds of duty, love, guilt, and economic interdependence that tie these families together. The issues come to a head when a cancer-related death strikes the tenant family and the value of human life versus the necessity of making a living becomes personalized.

Reviews

"A film about morality on an intimate level." -The (Louisville) Courier-Journal

"Very good juxtaposition of a personal profile with the social and economic environment...honest and caring." -Educational Film Library Association

"Students will profit from this example of discussion without rancor...excellent for discussion and composition in sociology, psychology, economics and value classes." -Media and Methods

"Beautifully photographed, colorful, slowly paced and powerfully moving." -AAAS Science Books

Screenings & Festivals

American Film and Video Festival--Finalist

Brotherhood in Media Award

Festival Internacional de Cinema/Figueria da Foz, Portugal

Film Festival Rotterdam

Southern Anthropological Society

Lily May Ledford

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:09:32 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1988 Running Time: 29:00 Color

Lily May Ledford--the original "banjo-pickin' girl"--led the Coon Creek Girls, the first all-woman stringband on radio. Pioneers among women performers, they played their own instruments and expanded the repertoire of what was considered acceptable material for women. In this portrait, Lily May talks about growing up in the beautiful Red River Gorge in Kentucky, about how her style developed, and about her experiences breaking into show business. The program intercuts footage of Lily May performing with comments from scholars and musician friends on the conflict between personal and professional fulfillment that existed throughout her career, her struggle for autonomy in the music business, and the role she played in the "commercialization" of mountain folk culture. Lily May received a National Heritage Award recognizing her contributions to country and traditional music shortly before her death in 1985.

Reviews

"This documentary is a tribute to her life and career in music....[It] portrays a strong-willed woman who took advantage of the opportunity to earn a living from her musical talent....A good documentary [that] should be purchased by those interested in the history of popular music, women's studies, Appalachia, and the like." -Jeff Titon, Brown University, Journal of American Folklore

"Of great interest to viewers concerned with women and families, folk music, mass media and southern mountain culture." -Stuart A. Selby, University of Windsor, Southern Quarterly

"Pure delight for those interested in the history of commercial country recordings and early radio." -The Old-Time Herald

Screenings & Festivals

Kentucky Educational Television

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Lee Sexton - Whoa Mule (Music Video)

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:09:15 +0400

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1989 3:00 min. COLOR

The title song of Lee Sexton's solo album is featured in this music video--one of the first and only traditional music videos to play on the country music cable channels. The video features alternating scenes of Sexton behind a mule-drawn plow, tending to his three-acre garden in rural Linefork, Kentucky, and a performance of the Lee Sexton Band at a square dance at the Blackey Senior Citizens Center.

Reviews

"Charming and entertaining." -The Associated Press

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Institute, Los Angeles

Country Music Television

The Nashville Network

Judge Wooten and Coon-on-a-Log

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:08:27 +0400

Directed by: Herb E. Smith 1971 Running Time: 10:00 B/W

A Fourth of July coon-on-a-log contest serves as the background for this portrait of George Wooton, Leslie County Judge. Wooten's lyrical comments on recreation, retirement, and the mountaineer's relationship with the land are mixed with scenes of spectators clustered on the banks of the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, applauding as someone's favorite black-and- tan coon dog plunges into the water and hustles a raccoon off a log in 45 seconds. "What we got here," says Judge Wooten, "is peace and happiness."

Reviews

"A beautiful film." -Jonas Mekas, The Village Voice

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Institute, Washington D.C.

Film Forum, New York

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Honorable Mention

I'm What This is All About

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:07:23 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis with Mimi Pickering 1985 Running Time: 29:00 Color

I'm What This Is All About documents some of the effects of a 1980 West Virginia Supreme Court decision mandating a complete overhaul of the state's schools. Parents in rural Lincoln County are shown fighting for equitable treatment of their children, for the preservation of community schools, and to protect the jobs of teachers who care more about kids than toeing the political line. I'm What This is All About presents in microcosm the complex issues that confront parents and educators in rural schools: school consolidation; fair taxation and funding; politics and patronage in the school system; education of children with special needs; and community and parent involvement. The program is important viewing for anyone curious about what it will take to reform our schools.

Reviews

"A natural as a lead-in to discussion of the need for school reform, and the pitfalls of cosmetic reform." -Mike Caudill, Hazard High School, Hazard, Kentucky

Screenings & Festivals

Blue Ridge Public Television

Kentucky Educational Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Homemade Tales: Songs and Sayings of Florida Slone

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:07:05 +0400

Directed by: Anthony Slone and Angelyn DeBord 1993 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Florida Slone is a singer and storyteller who lives in Knott County in eastern Kentucky. As a child, she contracted typhoid fever. The doctor told her mother that the illness would damage Florida's brain and that she would never be able to speak plainly. Because of the doctor's prediction, Florida's mother kept her out of school to help with family crops. These early years of isolation, cut off from spoken communication with even the closest members of her family, prompted Florida to develop a keen sense of observation. Later, she was able to learn to speak, and she celebrated this accomplishment by creating stories and songs of everything around her.

This documentary includes Florida's remembrances of her early years of struggle. She is shown imitating bird and animal sound, and singing songs she has made up about the natural world around her. She tells stories about witches who lived near her as a girl, and speaks of the visions and premonitions that guided her as she raised six children.

Now that her children are grown, and her husband has died, Florida has had to become more independent. She returned to school, learned to read and write, and got her driver's license.

Reviews

"... a wonderful video about a fascinating women." - Ron Mason, Urban Appalachian Council, Cincinnati, Ohio

"Excellent portrayal of a way of life." - Marie Parson, English Department, Prestonsburg Community College

"Thank you for capturing the storytelling of a very articulate woman." - Jim McGee, Folklore Curriculum, UNC, North American Folk Alliance

"How lucky we are to have a permanent record of this unique person." - Margo Blevin, Augusta Heritage Center, Davis and Elkins College

"A powerful and scary film." - Anne Radford Phillips, Coop Extension Services, North Carolina State University, Raleigh

Screenings & Festivals

Appalachian Studies Conference - Screening

Kentucky Educational Television

Chandler Medical Center: Summer series of Aging - Screening

SECA National Broadcast

His Eye is on the Sparrow

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:06:48 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1999 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Ethel Caffie-Austin, a daughter of the coalfields, is West Virginia’s “First Lady of Gospel Music.” This program features Ethel performing a range of spirituals, hymns and contemporary gospel numbers that represent the rich cultural heritage of African American song and worship. Ethel’s enthusiasm and belief in the redemptive power of faith are apparent as she is seen teaching gospel to a youth group, ministering to inmates at a state prison, and leading the choir at the Black Sacred Music Festival in Institute, WV. Oral history, archival material, and interviews are combined with performance footage to tell a powerful story of personal freedom and triumph through faith, wisdom, and the support of a caring community. Ms. Austin has had numerous honors awarded her throughout the U.S. and Europe. She was guest artist at Wolf Trap, has sung with Pete Seeger, and appeared on West Virginia’s Mountian Stage with Joan Baez, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Kathy Mattea. She made her debut at the Kennedy Center in Women of Gospel, a musical review of great African-American female gospel music singers, in February, 1991.

Reviews

“Tells a story of resistance, a belief in freedom, and the importance of culture and religion in shaping community life.” --John David, Southern Appalachian Labor School

“Your video of Ethel captures her in all her splendid humanity and holy devotion.” – Jude Binder, director Heartwood Dance Company

Screenings & Festivals

West Virginia International Film Festival

Workers’ Cultural Festival, Beard’s Fork, WV

Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:06:09 +0400

From the coalfields of West Virginia to the factories of Baltimore, Hazel Dickens has lived the songs she sings. A pioneering woman in Bluegrass and hardcore country music, Hazel has influenced generations of songwriters and musicians. Her songs of hard work, hard times, and hardy souls have bolstered working people at picket lines and union rallies throughout the land. Her piercing vocals power the soundtracks for Harlan County USA and Matewan. The Washington Post described her as "a living legend of American music, a national treasure," and in 2001, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded her a National Heritage Fellowship. In this intimate portrait, interviews with Hazel and fellow musicians such as Alison Krauss, Naomi Judd, and Dudley Connell are interwoven with archival footage, recent performances, and 16 powerful songs including “Mama’s Hand,” “ Working Girl Blues,” and “Black Lung.”

Hard To Tell The Singer From The Song profiles a "modern" woman dealing with contemporary issues from a feminist perspective which has evolved from her own experiences, being Appalachian, being displaced physically and culturally, being poor and working class, being a woman artist in a man's world, and being a bearer of tradition.

Note: Included on the DVD release is additional concert performances captured during the making of the documentary.

Reviews

“The film is among the most graceful to come out of Appalshop… It definitely does justice to the raw honesty of Dickens’ words and the truth of her experience.” - Bob Pest, Ozark Foothills Film Festival

“The screening was great, just about everyone in the theater gathered in the lobby afterwards to talk about the greatness of Hazel and Mimi’s film.” – Jim Demps, Gene Siskel Film Center, Art Institute of Chicago

“Impressive.” –Geoffrey Himes, No Depression magazine

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film & Video Festival

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

New York University

Experience Music, Seattle

Northwest Film Center, Portland Art Museum

Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago Art Institute

Nashville Independent Film Festival

Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley

Hard Times in the County: The Schools

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:05:16 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1988 Running Time: 29:00 Color

This documentary explores the impact of the federal government’s War on Poverty on school systems in eastern Kentucky and describes how the "solutions" that were implemented often failed to meet the needs of the area’s children. Archival film of President and Mrs. Johnson’s 1964 visit to eastern Kentucky is intercut with the views of administrators, poverty workers, teachers, parents, and two generations of students.

At the center of the program is the debate over consolidation of the schools in Breathitt County, Kentucky, where some rural children now spend twelve hours a day away from home due to the long bus ride to the town school. Hard Times in the Country also takes a hard look at the effectiveness of channeling certain children out of academic programs and into separate vocational schools where they receive training for jobs that don’t exist.

Reviews

"Shows yet again the U.S. bias in favor of urban over rural. The economics, politics, mores, ethics, and culture of two extreme opposites of governance tend to result in more broken promises for this poor, rural, and suffering educational system." -Choice

"As true now as it ever was." -Judy Meadows, Librarian, Grays Branch (Kentucky) Elementary School

"A very poignant report on the impact school consolidations have had on individuals and communities....I just wish it had a happier ending." -John Skawski, Department of Education, Cornell University

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film and Video Festival

Kentucky Educational Television

Blue Ridge Public Television

WSWP/Beckley, WV

WSJK/Knoxville

Fightin' for a Breath

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:53:28 +0400

Directed by: Stephanie Wagner Whetstone 1995 Running Time: 27:40 Color

Pneumoconiosis, commonly know as black lung, is a debilitating, incurable, and often fatal lung disease caused by excessive exposure to coal dust. Although black lung was recognized as an occupational disease in Great Britain beginning in the early 20th Century, the American medical community denied any relationship between exposure to coal dust and disabling lung disease.

In the late 1960s, a movement organized by Appalachian coal miners, their families, and a few maverick doctors and politicians forced the nation to confront the issue of occupational disease and disability. Appealing to state and federal legislatures, and, when necessary, shutting down coal production with massive wildcat strikes, members of the black lung movement insisted on legal definition of black lung disease and demanded compensation for its victims. Their grassroots efforts, coupled with the tragic deaths of 78 miners in the Mannington Mine Disaster, spurred the Congressional passage of the landmark 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act which created the federal black lung compensation program.

Although medical and legal recognition of black lung was a major step in acknowledging the existence of the occupational related disease, the federal black lung compensation program has been the focal point of a protracted confrontation between workers, employers, physicians, and policymakers over the meaning of disability and the definition of disease. Fighting for a Breath looks at this thirty year history and the plight of black lung victims today. Through interviews with minersâ lay representative Irene Farmer Napier, disabled miners seeking compensation, attorneys, historians, doctors and activists, we learn what the federal compensation program was intended to be and what it has become. -- a regulatory maze designed so strictly stringent that few disabled miners receive benefits.

Fast Food Women

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:52:15 +0400

Directed by: Anne Lewis 1991 Running Time: 28:00 Color
Digitally Remastered (2008)

Fast Food Women takes an inside look at the lives of the women who fry chicken, make pizzas, and flip burgers at four different fast food restaurants in eastern Kentucky. These women, mostly middle-aged and raising children, are often the sole income source for their families. They work for wages barely above the minimum wage, have trouble getting full-time hours because of their employers’ scheduling policies, and are without health care and other benefits.

Analysis by Barbara Garson (author of The Electronic Sweatshop) of the way fast food jobs systematically dehumanize and devalue the worker is intercut with comments from human resources managers at the Druther’s chain. Scenes of women at work round out this incisive, sometimes troubling look at life on the other side of the counter.

Reviews

"Fast Food Women acts like a warning notice: fast food work is hazardous to the pocketbook and the soul." -Pat Aufderheide, In These Times

"A provocative and eye-opening work... It drew my students into an intense and lengthy discussion about issues of equity and employment." -Andrew W. McThenia Jr., Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University

"The reality of daily family life for thousands of Americans is portrayed as these working women tell their stories--and hearing these stories is effective and can change lives." -Carol Moore, Director, Gender Equity Program, Mountain Empire Community College

"A penetrating look at social and economic conditions and the changing roles of women in the workplace." -Bernard Timberg, Department of Communication, Radford University

Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:51:44 +0400

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1988 Running Time: 38:00 Color

"In a society that can honor Loretta Lynn or Emmylou Harris, but not Sarah Ogan Gunning, clearly something is wrong. It means we haven’t been able to deal with our roots. We haven’t been able to deal with our giants." -Archie Green, folklorist and labor historian

Reviews

"Anyone interested in the history of the labor movement and the National Miners Union, women’s history, or the New York folk scene of the 1940s will find this program fascinating, and anyone wanting to hear some truly fine singing, the kind we hear less and less of these days, will be delighted with this video." -The Old Time Herald

"Recounting the life of one of the greatest Appalachian folk singers of modern times....it is a poignant, touching and memorable look and is certainly recommended viewing." -Donald R. Mott, Southern Folk Quarterly

"A fine and moving testament to a hard life and a slice of history coal interests would probably rather forget. It is a reminder of the realities of class, the sort of footnote whole new books come from, full of real details and real people." -Jo Carson, Now and Then Magazine

Screenings & Festivals

Atlanta Independent Film

Coalmining Women

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:51:27 +0400

Directed by: Elizabeth Barret 1982 Running Time: 40:00 Color

Interviewed at home and on the job, women coal miners tell of the conditions that led them to seek employment in this traditionally male-dominated industry--and the problems they encountered once hired. Watching these women bolt mine roofs, shovel beltlines, haul rock dust, and build ventilation barriers leaves little doubt that they can, indeed, do the work. Proud of their accomplishments, the women also seem to bring a special understanding to the problems all miners face. Coalmining Women traces women’s significant contributions to past coalfield struggles and the importance of their newer position as working miners. It is an excellent film for audiences interested in women in nontraditional roles, women’s history, labor studies, and women as a force for social change.

Reviews

"Highly recommended." -Catalyst: A Bibliography of Audio-Visual Materials Relating to Women and Work

"THE film on this topic for a long time to come. Thoroughly engrossing." -AAAS Science Books and Film

"A powerful and insightful film." -George Stoney, Filmmaker and Professor of Film and TV, New York University

"An important contribution to the growing archives of labor history and a stirring tribute to the women who fought for the right to mine this nation’s coal." -Richard Trumka, President, United Mine Workers of America

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Honorable Mention

Athens International Film Festival--Special Merit Award

Baltimore International Film Festival--Second Prize

Channel 4/Great Britain

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

London Film Festival

Margaret Mead Film Festival

National Conference of Christians and Jews--Distinguished Merit Citation

Women in the Director’s Chair

World Congress of Sociology, Mexico City

Coal Miner: Frank Jackson

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:51:12 +0400

Directed by: Ben Zickafoose 1971 Running Time: 12:00 B/W

Frank Jackson went into the coal mines of southwestern Virginia when he was 15 years old. This early Appalshop film juxtaposes Jackson’s personal recollections of union organizing and mining work with scenes of him in and around the mines. The viewer rides a ’low boy’ cart into the entryway of a deep mine, and as daylight shrinks and disappears around a bend, one gets a sense of what it must feel like to work underground. Coal Miner: Frank Jackson is a simple yet telling document of the experiences of a working man.

Reviews

"After listening to him talk about his years in the mines, you’re not likely to forget the craggy face, mountain dialect, or simple decency of Frank Jackson." -Gary Arnold, The Washington Post

"Jackson’s colloquial speech, laced with miners’ slang and regional vocabulary, describes articulately the difficult fight to unionize and the continuing problem of enforcing mine safety standards." -Carl Fleischhauer, Journal of American Folklore

Screenings & Festivals

Film Festival Rotterdam

Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Institute

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Pacific Film Archive

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Coal Bucket Outlaw

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:50:44 +0400

Directed by: Tom Hansell 2002 Running Time: 26:40 Color

The U.S. Department of Energy reports that coal produces over half of our nation’s electricity. Coal Bucket Outlaw is a digital documentary that asks Americans to look at where our energy comes from, and reveals the human and environmental price we pay for our national addiction to fossil fuels.

Built around a day in the life of a Kentucky coal truck driver, Coal Bucket Outlaw brings viewers into the cab of the truck and into the lives of the people who live and work by coal haul roads. It is a wild ride. A veteran driver who owns his own truck, and a young family struggling to pay the bills guide the audience along one-lane roads, up tight hollows, onto strip mines, and around coal processing facilities. Discussion of coal’s role in providing our nation with electricity connects the lives of these truckers to the lives of the viewers.

Reviews

“Someone’s got to haul the coal, and at the paltry sums per load, Kentucky truckers have got to haul ass as well. Hansell’s day-in-the-life doc links our addiction to fossil fuels to a megawatt system of national abuse – where the rubber meets the road just leads to corporate offices of power.” – Steve Seid, Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA

“Candid, insightful and surprising… “ – Beyond the Box, ITVS

“…Compelling…” - Best of the Year in Film, Louisville Eccentric Observer

Screenings & Festivals

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Louisville Film & Video Festival

Flooded Out Film Festival, Charleston, WV

Appalachian Visions, Mountain State University, Beckley, WV

Clinchco: Story of a Mining Town

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:49:19 +0400

Directed by: Susie Baker 1982 Running Time: 30:00 B/W

This series of interviews and photographs (many from family albums), chronicles the boom and bust of a bi-racial coal camp in the hills of Virginia. Retired miners and their families recall the joys and hardships of life in what was once a company- controlled community. The program, which was originally produced as a filmstrip, depicts the history of black and white settlement, the suppression of union organizing with machine guns and hired thugs, and Clinchco today--a shrinking community of retired people. The videotape presents an historical overview touching issues related to labor history, African-American studies, American history, sociology, urban development, and the American South.

Reviews

"An intriguingly unadorned portrait of a town like so many in America that build along with an industry and crumble in the wake of its aftermath." -Voice of Youth Advocates

"Those who like documentary presentations of the ’oral history’ type will appreciate this one. The story is compelling...a well- done presentation." -Choice

"Effectively uses strong visuals coupled with poignant excerpts from interviews and well-chosen folk music to combine into a unified whole." -Media and Methods

Chemical Valley

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:49:02 +0400

Directed by: Mimi Pickering and Anne Lewis 1991 Running Time: 58:00 Color

On Dec. 3, 1984, the worst industrial accident in history occurred when a toxic gas known as MIC leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. At least 3,500 people were killed, and over 50,000 were permanently disabled. The tragedy in Bhopal brought international attention to the predominantly African-American community of Institute, West Virginia, site of the only Union Carbide plant in the United States that manufactured MIC.

Chemical Valley begins with Bhopal and the immediate response in the Kanawha Valley, an area once dubbed by residents "the chemical capital of the world" because of the many plants operating there. The program then follows events in the valley over the next five years as lines are drawn and all sides heard in the debate between those who fear for their livelihood and those who fear for their lives. Chemical Valley explores issues of job blackmail, racism, and citizens's right to know and to act as it documents one community's struggle to make accountable an industry that has all too often forced communities to choose between safety and jobs.

Reviews

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, Chemical Valley is worth millions. It accurately portrays the air pollution horrors, as well as the arrogance, of industry." -Norm Steenstra, Director, West Virginia Environmental Council

"Ultimately Chemical Valley is about freedom of information: why we need it, how to get it, how to interpret it. It is also a powerful exposition of how women cope with threats to families, job, health, and communities, even when most of the people defining the issues happen to be men." -John Alexander Williams, Professor of History and Director, Center for Appalachian Studies, Appalachian State University

"Excellent footage of community meetings, regulatory hearings, and public relations events effectively contrast the anger, frustration, and sense of powerlessness of many citizens with the responses of industry defenders." -Booklist

"A film put together with skill and clarity. Remarkable interviews, sense of place, and pacing throughout. Integrity and intelligence of exceptional quality." -juror, American Film and Video Festival

"A compelling case study in the environmental racism that marks the distribution of environmental costs and benefits in our society." -Tom FitzGerald, Director, Kentucky Resources Council

Screenings & Festivals

PBS National Broadcast on "P.O.V."

American Film and Video Festival--Blue Ribbon Winner

Aveda U.S. Environmental Film Festival

Athens International Film and Video Festival--Award Winner

Big Muddy Film Festival--Special Jury Award

Chicago International Film Festival--Merit Award

CINE--Finalist

Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival

EarthPeace International Film Festival--Best Environmental Film

San Francisco International Film Festival--Honorable Mention

Women in Film Festival/American Film Institute

Buffalo Creek Revisited

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:48:07 +0400

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1984 Running Time: 31:00 Color

Filmed ten years after the flood, Buffalo Creek Revisited looks at the second disaster on Buffalo Creek, in which the survivors’ efforts to rebuild the communities shattered by the flood are thwarted by government insensitivity and a century-old pattern of corporate control of the region’s land and resources. Through the statements of survivors, planners, politicians, psychologists, and community activists, the film explores the psychology of disaster, the importance of community, and the paradox of a poor people living in a rich land.

Reviews

"A very perceptive study of the effects of community disaster and dislocation and of the inability of governments at all levels to deal with it." -Choice

"A powerful and sensitive treatment of a lingering human tragedy." -Library Journal

"An eye-opening revelation." -Booklist

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Athens International Film Festival--Merit Award

National Housing Video and Film Festival

Sinking Creek Film Celebration--Award Winner

Western Psychological Association Convention

Women in the Director’s Chair--Award Winner

Click Here to visit the official Buffalo Creek Flood Web Site.

Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:47:33 +0400

Directed by: Mimi Pickering 1975 Running Time: 40:00 B/W

Reviews

"A devastating expose of the collusion between state officials and coal executives... a powerful piece of muckraking on film." -Newsweek

"Outstanding! A very powerful film." -Dr. Parker Marden, Professor of Sociology, St. Lawrence University

"This film is recommended." -Educational Film Library Association

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Chicago International Film Festival--Silver Plaque

Museum of Modern Art

National Film Theatre, British Film Institute

Projections of the South: Folklore

Click Here to visit the official Buffalo Creek Flood Web Site.

Breaks of the Mountain

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:46:34 +0400

Directed by: Tom Hansell 1999 Running Time: 28:00 Color

Across America, communities are struggling with questions of development. From the urban sprawl of the Northeast, to the suburbs taking over farmlands in the Midwest, to battles over grazing and water rights in the Southwest and the struggle over clearcutting and wildlife habitat in the Northwest, communities are divided over how to use the limited land resources in our country. In the coalfields of central Appalachia, the struggle for sustainable development is intensified by a legacy of economic dependency on coal mining.

The Breaks of the Mountain, Russell Fork Gorge is a half-hour video documentary about issues an Appalachian coalmining community faces while developing a tourist economy around a river gorge. The video focuses on the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River as it flows from Haysi, Virginia to Elkhorn City, Kentucky.

The tape looks at the threats extractive industry present to this rare gorge, explores the promise of a sustainable ecotourism economy, and look at the threats too much tourism brings to the quality of life in a small town.

Reviews

“The economic and political challenges of preserving place are vividly portrayed” ~ John Nolt, Journal of Appalachian Studies

“A big and important film. As our society continues to rely less on extractive industries and more on service industries, I can think of no better way to get the dialogue on the right track than viewing Breaks of the Mountain.” ~ Joe Napora, American Whitewater magazine

“A very good teaching tool in any sustainable development class…addresses many of the issues that are discussed in the typical course.” ~ Duarte B. Morais, School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Recreation Management, Penn State University

“Interesting, Educational, and Entertaining.” ~ Keith Jackson, Kentucky Historical Society

Screenings & Festivals

Athens International Film Festival 5/00

Big Sandy River Basin Conference 4/00

Kentucky Folklife Festival

Kentucky Tourism Development Cabinet Millennium Forum

National Paddling Festival, 2/00 – Best of the Festival

Rural Tourism Conference, Carter Cave State Park

Twin Rivers Media Festival – First Place, Outdoor Category

Big Lever: Party Politics in Leslie County, Kentucky

appalshopsales@appalshop.org (Appalshop) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:45:38 +0400

Directed by: Frances Morton 1982 Running Time: 53:00 Color

In 1978 Richard Nixon chose this small mountain jurisdiction for his first public appearance since resigning the Presidency. Priceless footage of his visit introduces this incisive and sometimes hilarious look at the engines that drive American politics. The film explores the machinations of party politics in this rural and staunchly Republican county: Hollow to hollow vote-hunting; family squabbles over candidates; patronage promises; speech-making on the courthouse steps; and the up-and- down career of the incumbent County Judge-Executive who sought re-election while under indictment for vote fraud conspiracy.

Reviews

"Powerfully telling...thoroughly engrossing...a microcosm of U.S. political tactics--both legal and illicit." -Booklist

"An excellent addition for political science courses in high school or college." -Library Journal

"A fascinating and useful study of machine politics." -Dwight Billings, Department of Sociology, University of Kentucky

"The Big Lever is compelling political drama. A skillful presentation." -Noah Adams, host of National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered"

"Authentic down-home Americana and thoroughly entertaining." -Variety

"The best comment I have ever seen on Watergate. It explains how deeply corruption is engrained in the political life of America. A terrifyingly real film." -Irby Brown, Professor of English and Film, University of Richmond

Screenings & Festivals

American Film Festival--Finalist

Ann Arbor Film Festival--Award Winner

Athens International Film Festival--Golden Athena

Film Festival Rotterdam

Houston International Film Festival--Gold Award

San Francisco International Film Festival--Honorable Mention