Appalachian Film Series

Appalachian Film Series
Monday, March 2nd,2009
7pm @

The Tomato Head
Market Square, Knoxville

Join us for a screening of two Appalachian-themed films; "The Pioneer Doctor" a film by Jason Woods and William Isom II & "Melungeon Voices" a film by Julie Williams Dixon & Warren Gentry.


Filmmaker Julie Williams Dixon will be on hand to introduce her documentary "Melungeon Voices" & participate in Q&A afterwards.


Locally produced short film "The Pioneer Doctor" will also be screened as a world premiere.


Live music provided by Jon Worley

Cold foods, fountain drinks & beer made availble by the Tomato Head.




More . . .


"The Pioneer Doctor" (25 mintues) is a short film set in Southern Appalachia, 1849. This drama revolves around the fictional Gist family and their coming to terms with the loss of a son, Isaac & the resulting depression effecting the mother.


Created by Blount County native, Jason Woods and William Isom II of Hamblen County, Pioneer Doctor was shot on location in East Tennessee utilizing the historic sights of the region such as the Museum of Appalachia, The John Sevier Home Site and Ramsey House Plantation.



"Melungeon Voices" (64 minutes) is a film by Julie Williams Dixon, native of SW Virgina & cinematographer Warren Gentry.


"Shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years, the Melungeons of Southwest Virginia, and East Tennessee, have oral traditions claiming Portuguese ancestry, though academicians have traditionally written them off as a 'tri-racial isolate.' Living deep in the Appalachians, some claim these people were here as early as the late 1500s, and might be descendants of Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish soldiers and sailors who intermixed with Native Americans. Others lambaste this theory as simply “a cover story for African heritage.” In this film we follow Dr. Brent Kennedy’s search for his ancestor’s true ethnicity, and see how his theories set off a firestorm of controversy. Part genealogy, part genetics, part geography, the story of the Melungeons is ultimately a story of how divergent cultures banded together to survive in the earliest days of America.
"




Melange, Bitter-Sweet Cinema is a migrating presentation of important films laced with music, art and information.


We will be exhibiting movies at various venues throughout Knoxville periodically. One can expect to, not only experience rare and effective cinema, but to be entertained and armed with hard-to obtain media in the form of DVDs, books, music and information from all over the world.


Melange is a collaboration between Real Media News, an independent news outlet, and Sweet Southern Pixels, a media artists collective of women. Both groups are based out of Knoxville, Tennessee and aim to provide venues and voices for those who deserve to be saw & heard.