For more information:
• Appalshop, 91 Madison, Whitesburg, KY 41858, (606) 633-0108

Producer: Charlee Heaton

On Location

Filmmaker Andy Garrison

Independent filmmaker Andy Garrison once said that his mission was to “bring the light of Appalachian literature to the world.” And he succeeded well enough that he won praise from, among many others, the New York Times and the Sundance International Film Festival. Two of his film adaptations of stories by Kentucky author Gurney Norman, Fat Monroe and Night Ride, have also aired widely on public television.

In this segment, we travel with Andy to Letcher County for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of yet another Gurney Norman adaptation, Maxine.

The stories “Fat Monroe,” “Night Ride,” and “Maxine” appear in Norman’s collection entitled Kinfolks, which was the April 2000 selection for bookclub@ket.

Since this profile, Garrison has moved on to become a professor in the Radio/TV/Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin, where he started the innovative community filmmaking project East Austin Stories. Several of his Kentucky-based films are distributed by Appalshop in Whitesburg.

Watch This Story (15:23)

For more information:
• Moving Collective

Producer: Donna Ross

The Barking Dog Dances

Choreographer Alan Lommasson

To avoid taking himself and the world of modern dance a little too seriously, Louisville choreographer Alan Lommasson named his dance company Barking Dog. But that doesn’t mean he and the dancers of the company don’t take their craft seriously, as we see in this visit to their studio. Performance segments from works by Alan show both his light-hearted and his darker sides.

Though Barking Dog has ceased operations since this visit, Lommasson is determined that Louisville have a modern dance troupe of its own. His current company, founded in 2006, is Moving Collective.

Watch This Story (7:59)