Folkmusic Revival Films

Floating Dancer: The Story of Robert Dotson, the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers acquaints viewers with Robert Dotson and the Walking Step, a percussive dance step the…

In the 1970s, the Highwoods Stringband’s unique blend of musical brilliance, exuberance, sparkling wit, and eclectic repertoire introduced tens of thousands of delighted listeners…

A film portrait of blues artist Paul Geremia. Made by Geoff Adams in 1983 as a student film project. The documentary features a duo performance with Chicago bluesman Blind John…

An hour-long WETA-TV documentary on musician Stephen Wade. Catching the Music describes the passing of the banjo from one player to the next. The film includes footage of Kirk…

Klezmer is Eastern European Jewish folk music. In other parts of the country, klezmer seemed to disappear and then was revived. But in Philadelphia, the Hoffman family never…

The story of Pete Seeger and the birth of banjo music throughout the Southern United States. Written by Alan Lomax and directed by Irving Lerner, this short feature includes…

Banjo Spirits explores the legacy of the banjo through the eyes of Don Stover and Stephen Wade who assess the central role the banjo plays in their lives as a tool for creative…

A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden was the first film to document the klezmer revival, tracing the efforts of two founding groups, Kapelye and Boston's Klezmer Conservatory…

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…

This video tells how and where Arkansas ballad singer Almeda Riddle began her 10 year stint of singing old ballads all over the country. In an informal manner, folk musician Starr…

The fiddlers' convention at Union Grove is the oldest bluegrass music festival of the U.S., held on the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. This film…

Music for the Sky (2008) is a documentary movie about a community of eccentric revivalist old-time fiddlers living in Vermont and Western Massachusetts, USA. The film revolves…

John Cohn's remarkable documentary explores the lives of Appalachian mountain people in a depressed area of Kentucky through spiritual and folk music. Presents songs by revivalist…

A history of rural southeastern traditional American music, as told and played by Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard. Mike and Alice recount their own involvment with this music, and…