Narrative & Verbal Arts Films

Long before the advent of hip-hop as a multi-million dollar industry, African Americans were rapping and rhyming in the street, in their neighborhoods, and on the fish market…

This video documents the passions of 80 year old "Red" Alexander: building ships (both model and real), wood working, and story telling. Red was encouraged by the sale of one of…

Profiles filmmaker, photographer, artist, and musician John Cohen. The film examines the birth of a new artistic ethic and counterculture through John Cohen\'s involvement with…

Henry Elijah "Lige" Langston was born in 1908 in the Great Basin outback on a homestead. He worked his entire life as a wrangler and rawhide braider in the region known as the…

This film documents a group of teenagers telling urban legends, ghost stories and horror tales. The film explores how teenagers transmit horror stories, what the functions of such…

At the time of his death in 1996, "Tommie" Bass, was probably the most well-known herbalist in the United States. The subject of scholarly and popular books, television features,…

Portrayal of four renowned Puerto Rican décima troubadours as they come together to revive the Roundtable tradition and to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Don Quixote…

Playwrite Gary Carden's story of growing up in Sylva, North Carolina.

Hundreds of people must remember going to Elijah Pierce's barbershop on Long Street, seeking Pierce's latest woodcarvings, spiritual conversation, or simply a haircut and gossip.…

A candid portrait of the Tennesse ballad singer, story-teller, and part-time moonshiner Hamper McBee.

This is a remarkable "inside" glimpse into Southern folk culture and the roots of Southern "raconteurship" at it’s most authentic and best.

Ray Lum (1891--1977) was a mule skinner, a livestock trader, an auctioneer, and an American original.

An interview with Elijah Pierce in his barbershop on Long Street in Columbus. He talks about his work and his life and shows how his carvings express his experiences and beliefs.

16mm color documentary based on fieldwork William Ferris conducted with African American storytellers and bluesmen in the communities of Leland and Rose Hill, Mississippi. The…

Filmmaker Kevin Ballings writes...My interest in this topic is not religious, but cultural and ethnographic. The Old Regular Baptists are one of the most traditional religious…