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Appalachian Heritage Project: Streaming Video Resources @PSCC

Documentaries

Three men with pistols drawn and balanced on hood of carHarlan County, USA

Kanopy (104 minutes)

Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning HARLAN COUNTY USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. 

 

Film still image of boy leaning on the back of a pony staring at the camera and smiling.Portraits and Dreams 

PSCC Films on Demand (52 minutes) 

Portraits and Dreams revisits the photographs created by Kentucky school children in the 1970s.The film is about the students, their work as visionary photographers, the lives they have made since then and the passage of time. 

 

images of southern peopleAmerican Tongues: Linguistic Attitudes in the U.S.
Kanopy (57 minutes)

Southerners talk too slowly. New Yorkers are rude. New Englanders don't say much at all. Anybody who lives in the U.S. knows the cliches about how people in the various parts of the country handle the English language. American Tongues is the first documentary to explore the impact of these linguistic attitudes in a fresh and exciting manner.

 

title moonshine and the dixie mafiaMoonshine and the Dixie Mafia
Kanopy (60 minutes)

The History Of Stock Cars, Stills & Southern Outlaws! Discover Dixie and all its distinct and colorful history! Home to the finest whisky and bourbon, the American South is known for many things, including its charming drawl and glorious mountain ranges. However, there is another side to Southern history steeped in mystique, communal survival, ingenuity, brilliant entrepreneurship and distrust of the government.

 

image of two country boysFRONTLINE: Country Boys
Kanopy (338 minutes)

About Cody Perkins and Chris Johnson, two teenage boys from Appalachian Kentucky. Although wired to the world via the internet and cable, they are deeply rooted in a region stigmatized as "other," where the lack of economic opportunity puts its youth under uncommon pressure. The film follows them from ages 15 to 18, examining what it means to come of age in Appalachia.

 

black and white image of a poor familyThe True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia
Kanopy (71 minutes)

A feature length documentary which addresses the issue of representation in documentary photography by examining the work of American photographer Shelby Lee Adams. The film seeks to spend time with the subjects of Adam's work, in order to get to know them better and address the controversy and response Adams' photographs generate, which involves the politics of representation.
 

woman playing the banjoExtraordinary Ordinary People - Folk and Traditional Arts in America
Kanopy (85 minutes)

Featuring a breathtaking array of men and women, including musicians, dancers, quilters, woodcarvers and more, the film demonstrates the importance of the folk and traditional arts in shaping the fabric of America. From Bill Monroe and B.B. King to Passamaquoddy basket weavers and Peking Opera singers; from Appalachia and the mountains of New Mexico to the inner city neighborhoods of New York, the suburbs of Dallas, and the isolated Native American reservations of Northern California - each of the artists share exceptional talent, ingenuity, and perseverance.

Film

George Washington

Kanopy (90 minutes)

Over the course of one hot summer, a group of children in the decaying rural South must confront a tangle of difficult choices. Filmed in Winston Salem, NC, this ambitiously constructed, elegantly photographed meditation on adolescence is the first full-length film by director David Gordon Green. 

Light from Light

Kanopy (83 minutes)

 Gifted with sometimes-prophetic dreams and a lifelong interest in the paranormal, Shelia is asked to investigate a potential haunting at a Tennessee farmhouse. It’s there she meets Richard, a recent widower who believes his wife may still be with him. The investigation that ensues — which eventually pulls in Shelia’s son, Owen and his classmate Lucy — forces them to confront the mysteries of their own lives. Filmed at the Strong Family Farm in Knoxville, this official selection at the Sundance Film Festival was directed by filmmaker and UTK professor Paul Harrill.