An intimate, arresting portrait of the cursed Appalachian mining town of Ivanhoe, Virginia. The film captures the town as it prepares for the annual Jubilee, a wild 4th of July celebration where families and neighbors let loose and triumph over daily hardships, industrial abandonment, and race.
Set in the North Carolina Appalachians, Sprout Wings and Fly honors the fiddle playing of 82-year-old Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. Tommy was quirky, gregarious and generous, and this film shows him at his best, in fine fiddling form.
Sprout Wings and Fly
1983
5
Chronicles the 50-year career of singer/songwriter Jean Ritchie, from Viper, Kentucky to the New York stage. Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and her family and friends in Eastern Kentucky are among those interviewed. A 1996 KET production.
Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story
1996
0
Goodwin's Way is a 1-hr. documentary exploring a British Columbia town's resistance to a coal-powered future 100 years after the killing of controversial local labour activist Ginger Goodwin.
Goodwin’s Way
2016
0
Bob Childress was the founder and builder of the famous "Rock Churches" of southwest Virginia, all established between 1919 and 1954. In 2022, Buford Jessup and his family set out to visit all seven of his great uncle's churches.
My Great Great Great Uncle Built Churches
2022
0
Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie
2021
6
In A Town This Size introduces an Oklahoma town and its long-suppressed tragedy of childhood sexual abuse. The abuser, a prominent and trusted former pediatrician is, through this film and for the first time, held accountable for the actions he cleverly perpetrated. Stories are told through poignant first-person interviews with his victims, their families and professionals. This film brings to viewers an unnerving familiarity with the lifelong devastation resulting from this kind of abuse. Covering events in the 1960s and 1970s and continuing into present times, these personal stories devastate, frustrate and inspire. In A Town This Size moves audiences to confront child sexual abuse as a primary social issue and presses for changes in state statutes of limitation.
In a Town This Size
2011
5
You Gave Me A Song offers an intimate portrait of old-time music pioneer Alice Gerrard and her remarkable, unpredictable journey creating and preserving traditional music. The film follows eighty-four year old Gerrard over several years, weaving together verité footage of living room rehearsals, recording sessions, songwriting, archival work, and performances with photos and rare field recordings. Much of the film is told in Alice’s voice and via interviews with musical collaborators and family members who share the story of Alice and others chasing that high lonesome sound.
You Gave Me A Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerrard
2019
10
Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, singers, fiddlers, banjo pickers, moonshiners, cloggers, and square dancers recount the good times and the hard times of rural life there. Performers include Tommy Jarrell, Janette Carter, Ray and Stanley Hicks, Frank Proffitt Jr., Sheila Kay Adams, Nimrod Workman and Phyllis Boyens, Raymond Fairchild, and others, with a bonus of a few African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont.
Appalachian Journey
1991
9
Meet Brian Boland—the beloved, eccentric hot air balloonist and artist from the rural Upper Valley of Vermont.
The Balloonist
2023
0
In 1967 Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor came with a crew to eastern Kentucky to make a film showing people from all walks of life in the United States. They finished the day by filming coal miners and their families in rental houses. As the filmmakers were leaving, Hobart Ison, the owner of the property, drove up and fired three shots, killing Hugh O'Connor. Elizabeth Barrett, from Kentucky herself, explores why this happened by trying to understand the people and culture of eastern Kentucky.
Stranger with a Camera
2000
0
This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.
Spellbound
2002
7
A slice-of-life look at how kids in the former mining town of Silverton, Colorado stay busy in the summer by “mining” and selling rocks to tourists. Through this time-honored rite of passage, these “rock stars” learn history, social skills, and become little entrepreneurs while delighting tourists from around the world.
Rocks 4 Sale!
2022
0
One of the most important Kentuckians of the 20th century, Harry Caudill brought the story of Appalachia to national attention when his book “Night Comes to the Cumberlands” was released in 1963. The nonfiction account of Eastern Kentucky’s coal region, part history and part polemic, eloquently recounted the exploitation of Appalachia’s land and its people by business and government interests, and made Caudill a national spokesperson for his homeland. Harry Caudill spent his life advocating for Eastern Kentucky, with the aim of helping the powerless as well as securing the region’s unmatched natural resources for future generations. His work led to lasting government reforms for Appalachia, and his legacy remains a touchstone for activists today.
Harry Caudill: A Man of Courage
2015
0
Documentary profiling an Appalachian farming family struggling to scrape out a living. Linking education and economic development, The Children Must Learn suggests that better schooling, especially in agricultural techniques, would bring improvement.
The Children Must Learn
1940
0
The italian writer Gianni Celati travels through the Po delta, the same landscapes of his collection of stories "Verso la foce", on a blue bus, accompanied by friends and relatives. His friend, renowned photographer Luigi Ghirri, follows the group by car.
Strada provinciale delle Anime
1991
0
After eighteen years of operating the favourite lunch counter in Manitoba's Interlake region, Ellen and Martin Kihn have retired. A poignant look at the last day, The Kihns, their friends and their customers, demanding rural life and the place the disappearing institution of the country cafe plays in these people's lives. A tribute to the cafes found in small towns.
Havakeen Lunch
1979
0
From the 60's, the neighborhood of Pedra de Guaratiba, in Rio de Janeiro, was invaded by a varied artistic community.
Doidos de Pedra - O Paraíso Esquecido
2019
0
In September 2012, the tiny prairie town of Leith, North Dakota, sees its population of 24 grow by one. As the new resident's behavior becomes more threatening, tensions soar, and the residents desperately look for ways to expel their unwanted neighbor.
Welcome to Leith
2015
6
Follows the 300 year history of the Appalachian people with interviews by scholars, musicians and writers.
The Appalachians
2005
8
Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.
Vernon, Florida
1981
6