Narrative & Verbal Arts: Storytelling Films

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Stranger With a Camera

Stranger With a Camera

Stranger With a Camera

During the 1960s, filmmakers from around the world came to Appalachia to document the dire conditions of the region’s poorest residents. Media focused the nation’s attention on…

In the Moment

In the Moment introduces viewers to payadores, emboladores, decimistas, bertsolari poets, extempo and freestyle rap artists from Argentina, Canary Islands, Brazil, Portugal,…

Albert Collins

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

Born for Hard Luck

Born for Hard Luck

Born for Hard Luck

A film portrait of the last Black medicine-show performer, Arthur "Peg Leg Sam" Jackson, with harmonica songs, tales of hoboing, buckdances, and a live medicine-show performance.

Sonny Terry: Shoutin' the Blues

Sonny Terry: Shoutin' the Blues

Sonny Terry: Shoutin' the Blues

Shot in 1969, SHOUTIN' THE BLUES is a one shot, one story and one song short film of harmonica great, Sonny Terry. Seated in a motel room on Broadway in Oakland, California where…

Free Show Tonite

Free Show Tonite

Free Show Tonite

Presents a nostalgic tribute to the American medicine shows of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shows a re-creation of a typical medicine show by veteran performers,…

We Are Arabbers

We Are Arabbers

2004 | 1h 21mins

We Are Arabbers

2004 | 1h 21mins

We Are Arabbers follows the horse-and-wagon produce vendors along the streets of Baltimore, Maryland as they struggle to make a living and maintain their unique culture.

Appalachian Journey

Appalachian Journey

Appalachian Journey

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…

Living Stone

This documentary shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film…

Ballad of Frankie Silver

Ballad of Frankie Silver

Ballad of Frankie Silver

In 1833 Mrs. Frances Silver was hanged in Morganton, North Carolina, for the ax murder of her husband Charles. Tom Davenport's film explores the case through the singing and…

Other Side of Eden trailer

Other Side of Eden trailer

Other Side of Eden trailer

On a hot July night in 1932 a black tenant farmer in Northern Virginia slipped into his landowner’s home “Edenhurst,” beat him unconscious with a piece of stove wood, and dragged…

Being A Joines

John E. "Frail" Joines was a master tale teller from Wilkes County, N. C., on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His hunting tales, stories from World War II, and…

Pizza Pizza Daddy-O

Pizza Pizza Daddy-O

Pizza Pizza Daddy-O

PIZZA PIZZA DADDY-O (1967) looks at continuity and change in girl's playground games at a Los Angeles school.

When My Work Is Over

When My Work Is Over

When My Work Is Over

The gifted African American storyteller Louise Anderson (1921-1994) tells her family stories and folk tales, and recites poetry in this film taped in Jacksonville, North Carolina,…

Mermaids, Frog Legs, and Fillets

Mermaids, Frog Legs, and Fillets

Mermaids, Frog Legs, and Fillets

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…

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