Last Updated on March 17, 2024 11:15 am
BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University's High Country Humanities — with support from North Carolina Humanities — will present “Documentary Filmmakers on Interpreting Rural Life: From Appalachia to the World” on Friday, March 22, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The event will take place at Appalachian Theatre of the High Country at 559 W. King St. in Boone.
Join App State documentary filmmakers for screenings of their work, a panel discussion and an audience Q&A moderated by documentary film scholar Dr. Maria Pramaggiore, chair of App State's Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. The speakers will address how visual narratives portray and inform the public's perceptions of communities outside of cities.
Featured filmmakers include:
- Tom Hansell — Hansell is a professor of Appalachian studies in App State's Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and co-director of AppDocs. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Chorus Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His documentary films include “Coal Bucket Outlaw” (2002), “The Electricity Fairy” (2010) and “After Coal: Welsh and Appalachian Mining Communities” (2016).
- Dr. Kevin Kennedy — Kennedy is a professor emeritus of German in App State's Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and director of Kdocfilms. In 2020, his project “Germans in Jamaica: War, Spies and Camps”(2016) won the Gold Award for Best International Documentary Film at the International Film Festival in Florence, South Carolina. Kennedy’s other documentaries include “German Enemy Aliens in the Land of the Sky” (2012) and “Peter Paul Zahl: German Exile Writer in Jamaica”(2007), among other films.
- Yndiana Montes — Montes is a graduate student at App State pursuing her master's degree in Appalachian studies and the creator of a short documentary titled “Everybody Loves Maako.” Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, she has three decades of experience as a travel writer and is the proud recipient of a Doc Watson Award. Currently, she is working on a documentary about a bluegrass musician named Joe Troop.
The event is part of High Country Humanities' ongoing series “Connecting Local and Global Rural Cultures.” This series of talks, workshops, demonstrations and film screenings is supported by a grant from North Carolina Humanities. Each event is designed for general audiences and will help the campus and broader public learn about the stories, histories and traditions of rural communities from our state and around the world.
The event is free and open to the public. For a disability accommodation, visit odr.appstate.edu.
For more information, contact Dr. Darci Gardner, director of High Country Humanities, via email at GardnerDL1@appstate.edu or by phone at (828) 262-2928.
About High Country Humanities
High Country Humanities at Appalachian State University aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the humanities across the High Country region of North Carolina. The program supports faculty in their scholarly activities, promotes their collaborations with community partners and organizes events that help their expertise reach the wider public. High Country Humanities is an initiative of App State’s College of Arts and Sciences, with support from the Division of Academic Affairs. Learn more at hchumanities.appstate.edu.
