Southern Journey (Revisited)
Fifth Column Films
Synopsis
In 1959 the legendary ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax set out on a road trip through The Southern States. Recently returned from years of voluntary exile during the McCarthy era, his goal was to collect a definitive cross-section of traditional American roots music, using prototype stereo tape-recorder. This was a world on the cusp of monumental change, the recordings that Lomax made serve as both a peerless collection of traditional music and a social document of the times. 60 years on, SOUTHERN JOURNEY REVISITED follows the route that Lomax previously traversed - searching out the remaining echoes of the recordings he made along the way. Alongside the music, the documentary takes the pulse of a nation, surveying what has and has not changed, for good and for bad, in the 6 decades since Lomax trod the self-same path. Inspired partly by the negative stereotypes of the South that predominate both in Europe and the rest of America, the filmmakers set out to see for themselves if those stereotypes held any water. What emerges is a rich and varied tapestry that gives the lie to any reductive theories about the people and politics of the land that lies “Away, Away, Away Down South”.
Details
- Year
- 2020
- Type of film
- Features
- Running Time
- 75 mins
- Format
- Digital
- Director
- Rob Curry, Tim Plester
- Producer
- Paul Williams
- Executive Producer
- Matthew Shaw
- Editor
- Rob Curry, Tim Plester
- Director of Photography
- Damien Calvo
Genre
Production status
Complete
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Last updated 10th December 2020
