Folk Tales on Film

A Few Films of Storytelling & Folklore That I Have Been a Part Of . . . "The Prince of Dark Corners" NOW AVAILABLE ON VHS At the time of his capture in 1881, the outlaw, Lewis Redmond was described as "the most famous man in South Carolina." Redmond was equally well-known in western North Carolina and north Georgia where local newspapers begged the court to "forget his faults in admiration of his undaunted courage and unmistakable dash." Due to rumors of a dramatic rescue, Redmond's trial in Asheville was canceled and he was transferred to Greenville, SC People visiting the jail while he was awaiting trial in both locations gave him food, whiskey and cigars. Redmond acquired quite a collection of perfumed notes from women. Many of the events described in this play are controversial. The details of Redmond's career are distorted by folklore, bias and conjecture. As a playwright, I have omitted many events because they are too outrageous to warrant belief (even though there is considerable evidence that they are true). In addition, they are too numerous to be recounted in this single work. In a few instances, I have simply lied in the interest of dramatic form. I doubt anyone will notice. --Gary Carden Contact me for ordering information Mountain Talk is a unique portrait of the language and life of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, where individuality and diversity still reign. The true story of Appalachia is told through hundreds of candid interviews and performances. Narrated by award-winning storyteller Gary Carden. About Video Gallery Audio Gallery Credits 60 minutes / VHS Produced by the North Carolina Language and Life Project and NC State Humanities Extension Publications 2003 Blow the Tannery Whistle Willa - An American Snow White Davenport Films Contact me for ordering information Both of these videos grew out of my association with Tom Davenport, a filmmaker who works with folklore. Tom filmed "Blow the Tannery Whistle," and I wrote the script and performed it. It ended up on PBS. . . When I was a child, my hometown, Sylva, North Carolina, had a tannery with a mournful whistle that regulated work hours. People often commented on the organ-like tone of the whistle, and on several occasions, our town fathers attempted to talk the tannery owners into blowing the whistle as a celebration device. Why not blow it on July 4th? How about New Year's Day? Better yet, how about when Sylva won a football game? "Absolutely not," said the tannery owners. "That would merely confuse the work force and they wouldn't know if they should come to work or not." However, the owners finally compromised. They agreed to blow the whistle if something "important" happened. It didn't get tooted a lot. There was Pearl Harbor and then they blew it when the war was over. They blew it once when a northern lights display frightened the local populace into thinking the millennium was at hand, but that was only three times in 35 years. The owner's rigid requirements for blowing the whistle gave birth to a commonly-used expression in Jackson County. If a listener was shocked or amazed by a bit of information supplied by a local citizen, he would say, "Well, blow the tannery whistle!" I guess the exclamation suggested that the information that he had heard was so astonishing, even the tannery owner would endorse it and blow the whistle. As for "Willa: An American Snow-White," well, I wrote the script. The unusual thing is, the script was written by email. In some instances, the scheduling was so tight, I would send a scene and Tom would take it out of the printer and hand it to the cast! It turned into a feature-length film and won a Carnegie medal for educational excellence. Contact me for ordering information   Chat in My Appalachian Rant Discussion Group Click here to join in!