American Hillbillies Caught on Film
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- DirectorJacob YoungStarsWattie GreenDorsey WhiteJerry WhiteThis documentary short, produced for West Virginia public TV's "Different Drummer" series, introduces us to Jesco White, a hard-living, tap-dancing Boone County resident whose repeated run-ins with the law have interfered with his dream of becoming as renowned a "mountain dancer" as his late father, D. Ray White. We meet Jesco's three distinct personalities; the gentle and loving Jesse, the violent and dangerous Jesco, and the extremely strange Elvis. We also encounter various members of Jesco's family, all nearly as eccentric as Jesco himself. You will ask, "Are these people for real?" Yes, they are.
- DirectorJacob YoungStarsJesco WhiteTom ArnoldRoseanne BarrJesco's trip to Los Angeles to appear in an episode of the Roseanne Barr show as an Elvis impersonating clog dancer is chronicled.
- DirectorJulien NitzbergStarsJ. Parker Bazzle IIBig & RichPonty's CamperA year in the life of the White family, well known for Jesco White, the star of the "Dancing Outlaw" documentary.
- DirectorRory KennedyStarsBascum BowlingClint BowlingEdgar BowlingThis film tells the tale of a close-knit Appalachian family that has changed little in the last 100 years.
- DirectorDavid HuntleyStarsBilly Ray CyrusPopcorn SuttonTim SmithThe history and culture of the legendary inhabitants (the "hillbillies") of Appalachia.
- DirectorNeal HutchesonStarsPopcorn SuttonFloyd SuttonAbigail MooreIn a far corner of Southern Appalachia, moonshiner Popcorn Sutton makes one last batch of true bootleg whiskey. The craft of traditional distillation is revealed along with a lifetime of memories in the trade.
- DirectorNeal HutchesonStarsPopcorn SuttonJesco WhiteJ.B. RaderLegendary moonshiner Popcorn Sutton became a media sensation and inspired numerous documentaries, spin-off films and ongoing reality television projects before his untimely suicide in 2009. A Hell of a Life chronicles the modern folk hero in exclusive, never before seen footage, much of it filmed on his condition that it not be shown before his death.
- DirectorNeal HutchesonStarsBertie BerlesonGary Carden'Pink' FrancisMountain dialect, culture and identity are revealed by the true experts on Southern Appalachian culture--the people whose families have lived there for generations.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsJon VoightBurt ReynoldsNed BeattyIntent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
- DirectorJennifer BaichwalStarsShelby Lee AdamsChad BakerDonnie BentonThe meaning of art itself comes into question in this documentary about Shelby Lee Adams' controversial photos of families in Appalachia.
- DirectorDominic MurphyStarsMuse WatsonCarrie FisherWallace MerckDeep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, where every man owns a gun and a moonshine still, abides living legend Jesco White, "the dancing outlaw". As a boy Jesco was in and out of reform school and the insane asylum. To keep him out of trouble, his daddy D-Ray taught him the art of mountain dancing, a frenzied version of tap dancing to wild country banjo music. After his father's death, crazy Jesco dons his father's tap shoes and takes his show on the road.
- DirectorDebra GranikStarsJennifer LawrenceJohn HawkesGarret DillahuntAn unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsCharley GrapewinGene TierneyMarjorie RambeauHillbilly family farm life in 1941 rural Georgia.
- DirectorMaggie GreenwaldStarsJanet McTeerMichael HardingMichael DavisAfter being denied a promotion at the university where she teaches, Doctor Lily Penleric, a brilliant musicologist, impulsively visits her sister, who runs a struggling rural school in Appalachia. There she stumbles upon the discovery of her life - a treasure trove of ancient Scots-Irish ballads, songs that have been handed down from generation to generation, preserved intact by the seclusion of the mountains. With the goal of securing her promotion, Lily ventures into the most isolated areas of the mountains to collect the songs and finds herself increasingly enchanted - not only by the rugged purity of the music, but also by the raw courage and endurance of the local people as they carve out meaningful lives against the harshest conditions. It is not, however, until she meets Tom - a handsome, hardened war veteran and talented musician - that she's forced to examine her motivations. Is the "Songcatcher," as Tom insists, no better than the men who exploit the people and extort their land?
- DirectorRick MinnichA musical romp through the Ozark Mountains with a handful of rascally modern-day hillbillies.
- 1978– 57mUnrated7.8 (19)TV EpisodeStarsDiane SawyerA Diane Sawyer special report on the 1/2 million people living in poverty in Central Appalachia.
- DirectorJack WillisNET attacked what seems to be a continuing subject for telementaries, poverty in the coal mining regions of the southeast.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsRobert RyanTina LouiseAldo RayIn the 1950s, a poor Georgia cotton farmer and his sons search for the gold presumably buried on the farm by their great-grandfather, but problems related to poverty, infidelity, unemployment, and booze threaten to destroy their family.
- DirectorBarbara KoppleStarsJohn L. LewisCarl HornNorman YarboroughA heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
- DirectorRobert K. SharpeA group of poor people in Raleigh County, West Virginia organize when strip mining is damaging their houses and community. They work to get the state legislature to pass some strong laws protecting citizens against coal mining interests.
- DirectorSean DunneThe 'Hillbilly Heroin' epidemic that's slowly rotting the soul of rural America.
- DirectorElizabeth BarretA look at the reaction and aftermath of the murder of a documentary filmmaker in rural Kentucky in 1967.
- DirectorDavid SutherlandStarsChris JohnsonCody PerkinsJessica RiddleThe story of two boys growing up from ages 15 to 18 in rural parts of the United States.
- StarsJohnny CashLoretta LynnRosanne CashFollows the 300 year history of the Appalachian people with interviews by scholars, musicians and writers.
- DirectorJay DelaneyStarsDallas GilbertWayne BurtonC. Thomas BiscardiThrough the experiences of two amateur Bigfoot researchers in Appalachian Ohio, we see how the power of a dream can bring two men together and provide a source of hope and meaning that transcend the harsh realities of life in a dying steel town.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsSissy SpacekTommy Lee JonesLevon HelmThe fictionalized life of singer Loretta Lynn, a girl who rose from humble beginnings to become a country music star in the 1960s/70s.
- DirectorWilliam A. GrahamStarsJulie GholsonJan SmithersMatthew BurrilA family of Appalachian children live together in the backwoods so that they can stay together after the death of their widower father.
- DirectorJud TaylorStarsJessica TandyHume CronynJohn DenverAnnie Nations and her husband Hector loved their life together in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but when Hector dies, Annie has to decide if she can handle the wilderness on her own.
- DirectorJoe JohnstonStarsJake GyllenhaalChris CooperLaura DernThe true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
- DirectorJohn SaylesStarsChris CooperJames Earl JonesMary McDonnellA labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.
- DirectorMichael DibbMark KidelStarsSheila Adams BarnhillPhyllis BoyensVaughn EllerExploration into the music, dance, songs, tales, lifes and general socio-etnic history of the Apalchian region.
- StarsDarlene Musselman MyersTeresa E. HooverBonnie MyersThe filmed account of a poor woman and her family in the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania.