Appalshop

This award-winning series of videos focuses on the culture, heritage, and concerns of people living in the Appalachian Mountains. Based in Whitesburg, Kentucky, Appalshop productions seek to present the unique perspective of the people of this region in their own voice. For further information, checkout the Appalshop Home Page. For more complete information on individual titles and availability check the Libraries catalog, Minerva.

• Appalachian Genesis / VHS / 29 min. / Focuses on issues concerning Appalachian youth including job opportunities, education, health facilities and unsafe coal mines.
• Applewise / VHS / 29 min. / Apple growers in Wise County, Virginia discuss the various social and economic issues that have impacted their crops over the last several years. 
• Artus Moser of Buckeye / VHS / 29 min. / Through vintage photographs, musical selections, Moser's artwork and interviews with relatives, this film focuses on Artus Moser, a preservationist of mountain music in North Carolina.
• Belinda / VHS / 40 min. / A native of eastern Kentucky, Belinda Mason was a small-town journalist and young mother who became infected with the HIV virus in 1987. Belinda talks about her own experiences dealing with AIDS and the support she found within her community.
• Beyond Measure: Appalachian culture and economy / VHS / 58 min. / Discusses the effect of coal and natural gas mining on the traditional Appalachian way of life and the environment.
• Big Lever: Party politics in Leslie County, Kentucky / VHS / 53 min. / Shows how, with its resolutely Republican loyalties reaching back to Civil War days, Leslie County, Ky., hosted Richard Nixon's first public appearance after resigning the presidency.
• Bluegrass, black-market / VHS/ 28 min. / Attempts to prevent the cultivation and marketing of marijuana in eastern Kentucky are complicated by the involvement of some local law enforcement officials in drug trafficking.
• Breaks of the mountain: the Russell Fork Gorge / VHS / 27 min. / Documentary about issues an Appalachian coalmining community faces while developing a tourist economy around a river gorge. The video focuses on the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River as it flows from Haysi, Virginia to Elkhorn City, Kentucky.
• Buffalo Creek Flood: an act of man / VHS / 40 min. / Focuses on the Pittson Coal Company, and the disaster which occurred in 1972 when a coal waste dam burst.
• Buffalo Creek revisited / VHS / 31 min. / Presents a documentary on the collapse of a company-owned coal-waste dam that took more than 125 lives in the West Virginia coal mining region of Buffalo Creek in 1972. Uses newsreel footage, old photographs, newspaper headlines, and aerial views.
• Catfish, a man of the woods / VHS / 28 min. / Follows the daily life of Catfish Gray, an Appalachian mountain man who gathers herbs from the woods surrounding his home as medicine for people who come to him for treatment and advice.
• Chairmaker / VHS / 22 min. / Shows Dewey Thompson, an 80-year-old Appalachian chairmaker, who does everything by hand to create his chairs, including chopping down the tree.
• Chemical Valley / VHS / 58 min. / Institute, West Virginia is the site of the only Union Carbide plant in the United States. After the Bhopal, India disaster residents of Institute are worried about the chemical pollution and danger in their town.
• Clinchco : story of a mining town / VHS / 30 min. / Story of the small mining town of Clincho, Va. as told by the town citizens.
• Coal Bucket Outlaw / VHS / 27 min. / Documentary follows two Kentucky coal truck drivers on their work routines as a way of examining the connection between coal haulers and the larger system that produces America's electricity.
• Coal miner, Frank Jackson / VHS / 12 min. / A profile of coal miner Frank Jackson, who is seen in and around the mines as he tells what it is like to have spent a lifetime working underground.
• Coalmining women / VHS / 40 min. / Women coal miners tell of the economic conditions that led them to seek employment in the coal mines and problems encountered once hired.
• Dreadful memories: the life of Sarah Ogan Gunning / VHS / 38 min. / Reminiscences by fellow musicians, friends, and relatives of the events in this folk singer's life. Sarah performs some of her own songs.
• Evelyn Williams / VHS / 27 min. / Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, an environmental group, protests oil and gas company operations on Evelyn Williams' land.
• Fast food women: a videotape / VHS / 29 min. / Examines the working conditions of women working in fast food restaurants in eastern Kentucky.
• Fat Monroe: A conversation with Gurney Norman / VHS / 28 min./ Begins with a dramatization of Gurney Norman's short story, Fat Monroe, a story about a young boy from eastern Kentucky who accepts a ride home with a stranger.
• Feathered Warrior / VHS / 12 min./ Shows a cockfight in slow motion and an interview with a cockfighter who tells what he enjoys about this illegal sport, and concludes with another cockfight.
• Fighting for a breath / VHS / 29 min. / Discusses how coal mining causes black lung disease and the struggle of victims of the disease to obtain black lung benefits.
• Fixin' to tell about Jack / VHS / 25 min. / Jack and the Beanstalk retold as "Jack Tales" by storyteller, Ray Hicks to a group of children in North Carolina.
• Frontier Nursing Service / VHS / 29 min. / A look at an earlier period of the Frontier Nursing Service, established in Leslie County, Ky. a pioneer service in nurse mid-wifery in a rural setting. Shows a unique kind of medical service, as well as Eastern Kentucky.
• Girls Hoops / VHS / 28 min. / This video highlights some of the disappointments and triumphs in the history of girls basketball in Kentucky. Includes interviews with current and former players and selected footage from state championship games.
• Grassroots small farm / VHS / 29 min. / Describes an experiment to create grassroots small farms with low income families in Eastern Kentucky.
• Hand carved / VHS / 88 min. / Follows Chester Cornett as he cuts down a tree on the site of his family home in Appalachia, transports the wood to Cincinnati where he lives, and builds an eight-legged double rocker by hand.
• Hands on: a year in an eastern Kentucky classroom / VHS / 28 min. /"Hands on" goes inside an eastern Kentucky classroom to examine the potential of a student-centered, democratically run learning environment. Teacher Linda Oxendine-Brown and her 24 second graders are the collective managers of their classroom.
• Hard times in the country: the schools / VHS / 29 min. / Documentary that explores the impact of the federal government's War on Poverty on school systems in eastern Kentucky and describes how the "solutions" that were implemented often failed to meet the needs of the area's children.
• Harriette Simpson Arnow: 1908-1986 / VHS / 35 min. / Author Harriette Simpson Arnow talks about her life and writings, from her first job teaching in a one-room school to the publication if her successful books.
• His eye is on the sparrow: Ethel Caffie-Austin, minister of Black sacred music / VHS / 56 min. /          Interviews, oral history, archival material, and performance footage chronicle the life of Ethel Caffie-Austin, West Virginia's "First Lady of Gospel Music."
• Homemade tales: songs and sayings of Florida Slone / VHS / 28 min. / Explores the life of Florida Slone who grew up in Lackey, Ky. Florida sings songs she has written and talks about her life in the Appalachian region.
• In the good old fashion way: the Old Regular Baptist Church / VHS / 29 min. / Shows how members of the Old Regular Baptist Church, one of the Nation's oldest religions unique to the American Appalachian Mountains,are struggling to maintain their membership while facing diminishing membership and lack of interest from the young.
• In ya blood / VHS / 20 min. / A dramatic film whose central theme revolves around the decision faced by all Appalachian youth: whether to stay in the mountains or leave in search of a better life.
• It's hard to tell the singer from the song: Hazel Dickens / VHS / 61min. / Chronicles the life and accomplishments of West Virginia native singer and songwriter Hazel Dickens.
• Ivanhoe / VHS / 28 min. / A brief discussion of the history and culture of Ivanhoe, Virginia.
• John Jacob Niles: a portrait of America's classic folk collector, composer, and balladeer / VHS / 31 min. / Documentary is biography of the life and work of 85-year-old folk ballad singer John Jacob Niles at his home and in concert. He is responsible for folk music revival in the Appalachians.
• Judge Wooten and a coon-on-a-log / VHS / 10 min. / A 4th of July contest in which dogs are timed for their speed in getting a raccoon off a log and into a river serves as the background for Judge Wooten to discuss life in the Mountains through subjects ranging from tourism to moonshine.
• Justice in the coalfields / VHS / 57 min. / A documentary focusing on the United Mine Workers strike against the Pittston Coal Company, its effects on the people and the communities involved, and the unresolved issues left in its wake.
• Kingdom Come School / VHS / 22 min. / Focuses on Harding Ison, a teacher, who uses modern methods to instruct his pupils in a one-room schoolhouse in eastern Ky. Contrasts his views with those of the county school superintendent.
• Lee Banks: mountain farmer / 9 min. / A tribute to a strong, independent man who tills the soil on his small farm with a horse and wooden plow, finding joy in his work and harmony with the land.
• Lily May Ledford / 29 min. / Friends, neighbors and fellow musicians reminisce about the life and times of this country musicians who played the fiddle and sang. Color sequences interspersed with black and white film clips from past performances.
• Long journey home / VHS / 58 min. / Study of a contemporary Appalachian family that moved to a large city and then returned to the Appalachian region.
• Lord & father / VHS / 45 min. / Examines the tension between a Kentucky tobacco farmer, Joe Gray, Sr., who defends his way of life as landlord to tenant farmer, and his son, who questions its morality. Examines the son's objections to the growing of tobacco and the social implications.
• Mabel Parker Hardison Smith / VHS / 29 min. / Presents a character study of Mabel Parker Hardison Smith, who taught school for over thirty-five years in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky, as she recollects her life in an Appalachian Black miner's family.
• Millstone Sewing Center / VHS / 13 min. / Shows the activities in the Millstone Sewing Center, a community center which used the volunteer work of local widows and older women residents of the center in order to produce well-fitting, new clothes for the poor of Lecter County, Kentucky, free of charge.
• Mine war on Blackberry Creek / VHS / 29 min. / Presents an overview of the on going strike of union coal miners against the A.T. Massey Co. and includes an intimate look at both workers and strike breakers. Chronicles the UMWA's first confrontation with a multinational corporation.
• Minnie Black's gourd band / VHS / 29 min. / An 89-year-old woman from southeastern Kentucky uses her home grown gourds to sculpt a fanciful bestiary as well as to make instruments for the senior citizens gourd band that she started.
• Morgan Sexton: Bull Creek banjo player / VHS / 28 min. / The life and music of Morgan Sexton, banjo player from Bull Creek.
• Mountain vision / VHS / 29 min. / Introduces the audience to how community television has been used by and for the people of the Appalachian mountain region of Kentucky.
• Mud Creek Clinic / VHS / 29 min. / Describes the formation of the Mud Creek Clinic, explores the feelings among patients and community members that the clinic belongs to them, and draws a portrait of clinic director Eula Hall.
• Nature's way / VHS / 22 min. / Shows a variety of Appalachian folk people and their methods for curing diseases using herbs and other local cures.
• Nimrod Workman: to fit my own category / VHS / 35 min. / Nimrod Workman, a 78 year-old retired coal miner and ballad singer, reminisces about early union organizing and his life as a miner.  He also performs several songs.
• Oaksie / VHS / 22 min. / Provides a portrait of Oaksie Caudill, basketmaker, fiddler, and harp player from Cowan Creek in Letcher County, Kentucky. Oaksie demonstrates basket making while talking about his craft, his music and his life.
• On our own land / VHS / 28 min / Through interview and documentary, presents the controversy surrounding strip mining and the so-called " broad-form deed" in Kentucky, its legal effect on the conflicting rights of the land surface and mineral rights owners.
• One ring circus: the Jules & Beck Circus / VHS / 29 min. / Presents the story of the Jules & Beck Circus.
• Open windows: an American festival of music, theater and dance / VHS / 29 min. / Open windows is a part of the American Film Festival Project; a national coalition of performing artists which collaborates with communities to develop cultural exchange.
• Ourselves and that promise / VHS / 27min. / Several Kentucky artists contemplate the history and geography that molded their work. Records the works themselves (poems, photographs, & drawings ) and the artists' remarks about those pieces.
• Peace stories / VHS / 29 min. / A veteran of World War I, an employee of Oak Ridge Atomic Plant, and a veteran of Vietnam discuss how war has affected them.
• Portraits and dreams: photographs by Appalachian children / VHS / 18 min. / Looks at the black-and-white photographs taken by children ages 6 - 14, which capture their southeastern Kentucky mountain communities.
• Quilting women / VHS / 28 min. / An appreciative examination of the art of quilting, showing women of previous generations, as well as of today, as they practice and comment on various aspects of the craft.
• Ralph Stanley Story / VHS / 82 min. / This film tells Ralph's story through interviews with Ralph, fellow musicians, and those who know Ralph best.
• Ramsay Trade Fair / VHS / 18 min. / Shows what happens at the weekly flea market in Ramsay, West Virginia, where a variety of articles and gossip are traded in a spirit of fair play and hard bargaining.
• Ready for harvest: clear-cutting in the southern Appalachians / VHS / 29 min. / Discusses the pros and cons as well as the environmental issues that arise from "clearcutting", a method of logging where all trees regardless of size are cut. Talks with timber companies, residents and representatives from the forest service.
• Red Fox / second hangin' / Roadside Theater / VHS / 90 min. / Several stories, enacted by the storytellers, centering on Dr. Marshall B. "Red Fox" Taylor from the Civil War to 1893, ending with his hanging in Wise County, Virginia.
• Rough side of the mountain / VHS / 57 min. / The residents of two towns in Southwest Virginia (Ivanhoe and Trammel) struggle to rebuild their communities amid high unemployement and poverty due to factory closings.
• Roving pickets, 1961-1965 / VHS / 28 min. / Discusses the roving pickets that were formed by the coal miners in Kentucky to try to combat the inadequacies of the union.
• Sarah Bailey / VHS / 29 min. / A remarkable folk artist from Harlan County, Kentucky, who "invented" dolls and flowers made from corn shucks, shows her work and demonstrates her craft.
• Shelter / VHS / 58 min. / Shelter tells the story of 5 rural West Virginia women who come to the Family Refuge Center in Lewisburg, West Virginia over a 5 year period as they try to find freedom, justice, and safety for themselves and their children.
• Sludge / DVD / 40 min. / Tells the story of the massive coal waste damn break on October 11, 2000.  306 million gallons of sludge was sent town two tributaries of the Tug River in Martin County, Kentucky.  The spill was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.  This film was shot over a 4 year period chronicling the continuing story of the disaster, the resulting federal investigation, an the looming threat of sludge ponds throughout the coalfield region.
• So was Einstein: a look at dyslexic children / VHS / 29 min. / Introduces dyslexia as experienced by students, their parents, teachers, and tutors of a school in eastern Kentucky. Special teaching techniques appropriate for students with dyslexia are demonstrated.
• Sourwood mountain dulcimers / VHS / 28 min. / Examines the arts of dulcimer building and playing as part of the Appalachian heritage.
• Step back Cindy: old time dancing in southwest Virginia / VHS / 28 min. / A documentary of old time dancing (sometimes called colonial square dancing) in southwest Virginia.
• Strangers and kin / VHS / 58 min. / Attempts to dispel prejudices and misconceptions about Appalachian people and their mountain heritage. Shows Appalachian actors performing and talking about their own relationships to their native hills.
• Strip mining: energy, environment and economics / VHS / 50 min. / Discusses how strip mining began, its growth, and the consequences of this type of mining for the Appalachian region.
• Strip-mining in Appalachia / VHS / 25 min. / Discusses the controversy surrounding the strip mining of coal in the Appalachian Mountains.
• Struggle of Coon Branch Mountain / VHS / 13 min. / A documentary in which various residents of a small rural West Virginia town protest bureaucratic indifference toward their desires for adequate educational opportunities for their children.
• Sunny side of life / VHS / 55 min. / Presents a documentary on the original Carter family of Southwestern Virginia and their musical legacy. Points out that individual performers pass on, but their joy and spirit endures "when we keep on the sunny side of life."
• Tell me a story, sing me a song / VHS / 29 min. / Offers a look at indigenous theater in the U.S., especially issues surrounding Black, Jewish, and Appalachian theater. Members of three companies, A Free Southern Theater, A Traveling Jewish Theater and Appalshop's.
• Three mountain tales / VHS / 12 min. / Three mountain folk tales as told by the members of the Roadside Theater, illustrated with pastel drawings by taleteller Angelyn DeBord.
• To save the land and people / VHS / 57min. / Discusses the history and impact of strip mining in Kentucky. Focuses on actions by people directly affected by mining on both sides of the question: miners and farmers. Highlights the evolving legislation imposed to control strip mining and enabling newer methods such as "mountain top removal".
• Tomorrow's people / VHS / 17 min. / Combines mountain music and views of Appalachian people and places.
• Tradition / VHS / 20 min. / Describes the making of moonshine in the Kentucky hills. Presents interviews with people involved, including a man who is a moonshiner and a law official who tells how moonshiners are located.
• Tribute to Carl D. Perkins / VHS / 29 min. / Carl D. Perkins, a respected member of Congress for nearly forty years, died on Aug. 3, 1984, on his way back to his eastern Kentucky district. One hundred members of Congress traveled to Hindman, Kentucky to show their respects.
• Unbroken Tradition: Jerry Brown's pottery / VHS / Jerry Brown tells how he came to carry on the family tradition of being a potter and discusses his methods.   
• United Mine Workers of America, 1970: a house divided / VHS / 14 min. / Contrasts statements made by Tom Boyle, president of the UMWA, at a miner's rally with those of the anti-Boyle faction. Included are dissident miners and exposes the weakness of the union under his leadership 2 years before the rank and file rejected him.
• War, taxes and the almighty dollar / VHS / 30 min. / The burden of taxes is a nationwide problem that has been passed clear down to the local level. Some of the issues addressed are $100.00 tool boxes going for $10,000.00, Defense Dept., jets causing farm foreclosures in Southwest Virginia.
• Waterground / VHS / 16 min. / Takes a look at the owner of a family-operated, water-powered gristmill in North Carolina. Shows his skepticism of modern society as he comments about the mass-produced flour and laments the passing of a bygone era when the small farmer could thrive.
• Whippin' the Devil / DVD / 27 min. / A portrait of Guy Roberts, moonshiner in his youth, and how after a robbery attempt he was forced to flee across America on the lam.  The video weaves together Guy's own description of his journey, family photographs and the banjo music of Dock Boggs.
• Whoa Mule / VHS / 4 min. / A square dance, called by Lee Sexton.
• Woodrow Cornett, Letcher County butcher / VHS / 10 min. / A portrait of Woodrow Cornett and his work and a look at the mountain custom of hog butchering performed by a master of the craft.
• Yellow Creek, Kentucky / VHS / 29 min. / Documentary about the legal and political struggle of the residents of a small southeast Kentucky community and their efforts to stop a commercial tannery from dumping toxic wastes into the creek that flows through their town.