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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
(click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)
The Winding Stream: The Big Bang of Country Music Documentary films have the power to bring us into worlds we never heard of, or barely know of—worlds we may have no interest in entering.
But if we follow the filmmaker’s Yellow Brick Road we amaze ourselves at how much fun it was, how fascinating and engaging. We end up grateful that we took the first step and kept walking.
Directed by the highly accomplished filmmaker Beth Harrington, “The Winding Stream” tells the story of the Carter family who are considered to be “The Big Bang of Country Music”. The three members of that family who started it all were A.P., Sara, and Maybelle, from Maces, Virginia, in the Appalachian foothills.
The story takes us from the late 1800s to the present, with interviews of and performances by a handful of performers all paying tribute to the three seminal members who are referred to as ‘the Original Carter Family.’
Whether or not you like country music, have any interest in it whatsoever, if you’re like me, you will be utterly fascinated with the characters you meet, and their heroic stories.
I am stunned by this film. Each of the three Carter family members could have their own documentary or narrative film. Their personal lives were quietly epic, their contributions to American music, incalculable.