FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – 7:30 PM with Director Q+A (This event is $10.)
The Appalachian region of America stretches from northern Alabama to central New York and is home to countless artistic traditions, from quilting to clog dancing, dulcimer crafting to wood flute carving. Centuries of crisis, beginning with the displacement of native communities by white settlers, then the Civil War, industrialization and the labor struggles that followed, to the present-day opioid epidemic and rustbelt economic policies, have formed stories and traditions that are at once isolated from, yet central to, the broader history of the United States. In the two documentaries BLUEGRASS ROOTS and APPALACHIAN JOURNEY , Spectacle presents a sampling of these stories, traditions and ways of life found in the hills to the West.
BLUEGRASS ROOTS
Dir. David Hoffman, 1965
United States. 44 min.
In English
In his first film, David Hoffman traversed the Blue Ridge Mountains, searching for and documenting the unique musical tradition of American Appalachia. Guided by the folklorist Bascom Lunsford and his wife Nellie, we are introduced to banjo pickers, dulcimer slappers, clog-shoed steppers and moonshining yodelers. In contrast to the Alan Lomax documentary, Hoffman is a one-man crew, shooting on 16mm film and opting to let his guides conduct the interviews.
APPALACHIAN JOURNEY
Dir. Mike Dibb, Mark Kidel, Alan Lomax, 1990
United States. 56 min.
In English
In this short documentary originally produced for television, Alan Lomax delves into the culture of Appalachia, demonstrating his deep knowledge of instrumentation, folk art and American anthropology. While mostly focusing on the musical traditions of the region, Lomax also turns his attention towards broader socio-economic issues such as prohibition, strip-mining and land theft, first from indigenous peoples and now those living in the mountains in the twentieth century. A quarter decade separates Hoffman and Lomax’s films. As a result, APPALACHIAN JOURNEY is able to document the effects of economic decline in the last few years before the opioid crisis began its decades long devastation of the region.