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Project Detail

Southern Journey (Revisited)

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 project
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

Categories

Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Fifth Column Films

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