Filmmakers Ross Spears and Jamie Ross will be on campus for Nov. 20 talk and Nov. 21-22 screenings

Berea College will host the Kentucky premiere Nov. 21-22 of “Appalachia:  A History of Mountains and People,” a major documentary series that will debut nationally on PBS in Feb. 2009.
 
“Appalachia” breaks new ground as the first environmental history of any region – combining the work of scientists such as E. O. Wilson with writers such as Barbara Kingsolver and native storytellers such as Freeman Owle to paint a picture of the region as never seen before.  
 
Narrated by Sissy Spacek and with an all-star cast that includes Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist E. O. Wilson and best-selling novelist Barbara Kingsolver, “Appalachia” explores the intersection of natural history and human history, to paint a picture of the region as never seen before.  A production of the James Agee Film Project, the series had its world premiere in Knoxville, Tenn. Sept. 27.
 
Film director Ross Spears and producer Jamie Ross will be at Berea Thursday – Saturday, Nov. 20-22 for the screenings and a public talk.  Thursday, Nov. 20, they will present a program as part of Berea’s Convocations Series, beginning at 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Auditorium. For their program titled “Appalachia:  Where Is That, and Why Haven’t I Been There?” Spears and Ross will show excerpts from the film and discuss their philosophy of film as social commentary.
 
The documentary will be shown on Nov. 21 (parts 1 and 2) and Nov. 22 (parts 3 and 4).  Both screenings will be in Phelps Stokes Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m., followed both evenings by a Talk Back with Ross and Spears.
 
The events are sponsored by the Berea College Appalachian Center and the Convocations program.  Admission is free.
 
For more information and to view the trailer, visit www.appalachiafilm.org.