#folkstreams

stills from Clotheslines, Roberta Cantow, 1981, watched on Folkstreams

Film over Bill Monroe via Folkstreams (©1993, Steve Gebhardt)

Jack Schrader shot this film with a 16mm Bolex camera without sync sound. It is part of a 1973 series of films created by Schrader and Folklorist Thomas Burton. These films are streamed on Folkstreams and the 16mm prints are in the Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University.

It’s raining today in Portland which means the flowers are drunk and we’re staying in bed with the windows open, watching our hearts out on folkstreams.net. Favorites thus far: New Orleans jazz parades, Appalachian snake handling and Vicksburg’s famous “Home of the Double Headed Eagle.” 

“Folkstreams.net has two goals. One is to build a national preserve of hard-to-find documentary films about American folk or roots cultures. The other is to give them renewed life by streaming them on the internet. The films were produced by independent filmmakers in a golden age that began in the 1960s and was made possible by the development first of portable cameras and then capacity for synch sound. Their films focus on the culture, struggles, and arts of unnoticed Americans from many different regions and communities.” (via Folkstreams » The Best of American Folklore Films)

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,105

Another smash hit from Folkstreams. Sonny Terry was the baddest of asses. Check it out!

Like Folkstreams, the Digital Library of Appalachia is another incredible resource for all things rural. With free downloads of field recordings from the archives of different Appalachian universities, you can't go wrong. Might I suggest starting with the lined-out hymns?