Arts Council
Kentucky Crafted: The Market Adds Film Screenings to 2009 Offerings
FRANKFORT, Ky. ─ The award winning Kentucky Crafted: The Market, now in its twenty-seventh year, will present free film screening by Kentucky filmmakers for the first time. Selected filmmakers, Elizabeth Barret, Mimi Pickering and Sean Anderson have all received the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in Media Arts from the Kentucky Arts Council, the sponsoring agency of Kentucky Crafted: The Market.
The Saturday screenings will take place at 2:00 p.m., February 21st in Room B105, South Wing B at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The films "Stranger with a Camera," by Elizabeth Barret and "Buffalo Creek Flood" and "Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning" by Mimi Pickering will each be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmaker.
The Sunday screening at 1:00 p.m., February 22nd will also be in Room B105. Filmmaker Sean Anderson will also be available for a question and answer session after the screening of his film "…damn bad oyster."
All four films are documentary in nature and would not be appropriate for or of interest to children. DVDs of these and other films by Kentucky artists will be available at the Blue Moon Marketplace (Booth 450) in Kentucky Crafted: The Market.
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Film Synopses and Reviews
"Stranger with a Camera" by Elizabeth Barret
From www.itvs.org/strangerwithacamera/
In STRANGER WITH A CAMERA, filmmaker Elizabeth Barret, who was born and raised in the region, explores the tensions that led to the murder, and the issues that linger still, a generation later. Barret narrates the film, describing her childhood and teenage memories growing up in a middle-class home in eastern Kentucky. By her own account, her teenage memories of high school fun and family vacations stood in stark contrast to the hunger and poverty depicted in the national media. The story of Hugh O'Connor and Hobart Ison would acquire additional significance for Elizabeth Barret when she began to study filmmaking at Appalshop, a regional media arts center whose mission was to teach local people to film and document their own culture.
STRANGER WITH A CAMERA probes the tragic encounter between a mountain man and a filmmaker to explore today's unresolved questions concerning media images and the individual's lack of power to define oneself within the American landscape. Eloquent interviews representing multiple, conflicting perspectives shed new light on the creation and consumption of media images in society. STRANGER WITH A CAMERA combines a fascinating look at a complexly motivated crime with an insightful exploration of how the media affects the communities it chronicles.
"Buffalo Creek Flood" by Mimi Pickering
From Appalshop Press Release "Library of Congress Names Appalshop Film to National Film Registry," December 27, 2005
BUFFALO CREEK FLOOD: AN ACT OF MAN is described by the Library of Congress as a "powerful documentary" that "represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region." It poignantly portrays the impact that the February 1972 collapse of a coal-waste dam had on West Virginia communities it devastated. A wall of sludge, debris and water tore through the valley, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless. The Pittston company, owners of the dam, maintained that the disaster was "an act of God." Interviews with survivors, representatives of unions and citizens groups and officials of the Pittston company are juxtaposed with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing destruction.
"Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning" by Mimi Pickering
Reviews and Commentary
"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
"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
"…damn bad oyster" by Sean Anderson
Review by Larry Dale Keeling for KY.com, January 20, 2009
Judge James Hillary Mulligan wrote the poem In Kentucky (which closes with the line that appears at the top of this blog) in 1902, an era when Kentucky politics really were the “damnedest.” Just a couple of years earlier, a dispute over a gubernatorial election brought opposing armed militias to Frankfort and resulted in the assassination of William Goebel, who was sworn as governor after he was shot.
Lexington filmmaker Sean Anderson has produced a new documentary on Goebel, … damn bad oyster: The Times of William Goebel, Governor. The hour-long film … offers an interesting perspective on Goebel, as both populist and machine boss, and on the politics of the era that produced him. As a journalist, I particularly enjoyed the numerous cartoon depictions of Goebel from contemporary newspapers. If you have any interest in Kentucky political history, … damn bad oyster is well worth your time.
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Kentucky Crafted: The Market 2009
Kentucky Exposition Center, South Wing B, Louisville, Ky.
Public Days
Saturday, February 21, 2009, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. E.S.T.
Sunday, February 22, 2009, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. E.S.T.
Adults $8 (Children 15 and under free), Parking $6
$3 off admission with coupon, go to www.kycraft.ky.gov
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Kentucky Crafted: The Market is produced by the Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet that creates opportunities for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Funding for the Kentucky Arts Council is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
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