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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. 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, the four-part documentary 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. For more about the film and to view the trailer, visit www.appalachiafilm.org
Producer Jamie Ross and director Ross Spears 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?” Ross and Spears 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 additional event information, contact Chad Berry, director, Berea College Appalachian Center at (859) 985-3140 or chad_berry@berea.edu
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
For 30 years the James Agee Film Project has been producing award-winning films on the culture and history of the American South. East Tennessee native Ross Spears has been the producer, director and writer for seven award-winning feature documentaries, all of which have aired on PBS.
Ross’s most recent project is “Tell About the South: Voices in Black and White, “ a three-part series on modern southern literature, featuring the greatest writers of the south, past and present, including interviews with most of the greatest living Southern writers. His other films include “AGEE” (1980), the only film biography of an American writer ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. The film was also an award winner at the American Film Festival. “Electric Valley” (1983), a history of the TVA, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Documentary. “To Render a Life,” a feature documentary based on the book “Now Let Us Praise Famous Men,” by James Agee and Walker Evans, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Best Documentary of the Year in 1993 and won a Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival.
Jamie Ross has worked with the James Agee Film Project for more than 25 years as a writer, editor and producer. Her work on “Appalachia” began years before any camera work was begun. After spending two years exploring archives and traveling through the mountains gathering information, Ross says she realized the only way to weave the many threads of the Appalachian story together would be to make the mountains the main character. Ross Spears agreed, and they began what was to become the first environmental history series of any region ever on film.
KENTUCKIANS IN THE FILM
Kentuckians featured among the “Who’s Who” of scientists, writers, scholars and musicians in the cast includes:
-Loyal Jones, founder of the Berea College Appalachian Center - one of the region’s most revered scholars, and the author of numerous books on Appalachian history, culture and humor;
-Tom Gish, Editor-in-chief for more than 30 years of the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg;
-Ron Eller, director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky and author of “Miners, Millhands and Mountaineers,” a seminal work on the history of economic development in Appalachia;
-Gurney Norman, novelist, short story writer and filmmaker. A native of eastern Kentucky and professor of creative writing at the University of Kentucky, he is the author of “Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories” and “Divine Right’s Trip.”
THE SERIES
Part One of the film, “Time and Terrain,” looks at how the Appalachian Mountains were created and tells the history of the area’s peoples with special emphasis on the Cherokee.
Part Two, “New Green World,” covers natural resources, the impact of the French-Indian War and the American Revolution, Daniel Boone and the Trail of Tears.
Part Three, called “Mountain Revolutions,” explores the rich biodiversity of the area, agricultural life, the timber and coal industries, African Americans in Appalachia and the coming of railroads and industrialists.
Part Four, “Power and Place,” includes the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the area’s literature and music, the effects of technology and environmental challenges and a thoughtful projection of the future of the region.
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