Arts & Crafts, Traditional Films

Portrait of Albert "Hap" Collins of South Blue Hill, Maine. Hap Collins was a poet, painter, fiddler, lobster fisherman, storyteller, and craftsman.

A 1973 film of Alex Stewart, a mountain craftsman from near Sneedville, Tennessee, constructing a churn. Film includes discussion of the use of non-powered tools and skills handed…

Alan Lomax travels through the Southern Appalachians investigating the songs, dances, and religious rituals of the descendents of the Scotch-Irish frontiers people who have made…

The culture and identity of contemporary ironworkers in southwestern Wisconsin.

This 28 minute piece documents the construction of a communal bread-oven in Cambridge, NY. As part of the events celebrating the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City…

1973 16-mm film of Elizabeth Proper, the last of the white oak basketmakers in a community near Taconic Hills in eastern New York State.

Becoming Geppetto gives us an intimate and serenely meditative front-row seat to the Petros's guitar making process, as well as a look into their family life and history.

Ben Thresher's mill is one of the few water-powered, wood-working mills left in this country. Operating in rural Vermont since 1848, the mill is a unique link between the age of…

What do nature centers, natural history museums, and hunters have in common? They all require someone skilled in bird taxidermy. This film shows how, with the help of a two-year…

An introduction to H. Lee Waters and his Movies of Local People 1936 to 1942. A film by Tom Whiteside.

Using only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum, César Newashish, a 67 year old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve demonstrates how to build a canoe the "old" way.

Jack Ofield's 16-mm film shows the work of Henry Duncklee, who retired from his job as a circus sign painter in 1949, and begin building this circus of his own.

This documentary was part of a program on five short subjects about traditional activities in the New Jersey Pinelands National Preserve: railbirding in the meadows, cranberry…

This film examines the vernacular architecture of Indiana’s many covered bridges, including their use as a key symbol of local identity.

American cowboys have been writing poetry for more than a century. Cowboy Poets profiles three cowboy reciters--Waddie Mitchell, Slim Kite and Wally McRae--representing three…