Jim,
Thank you for sharing this information with the list. I would like to know 
how I can view the documentary. Is there a possibility that it will be shown 
on PBS?

Anita


>From: Jim Glanville <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Meluingeon Voices: An Optimistic Message
>Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:23:35 -0400
>
>List Members:
>
>After nearly six years in the making, the documentary movie "Melungeon 
>Voices" was premiered on June 30th and July 1st, 2007 at the Seventh 
>Melungeon* Gathering in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
>
>The documentary tells the Melungeons' story in their own words using 
>interviews, family photographs, and family records. It describes the long 
>years of ostracism, marginalization, and outright discrimination they 
>suffered—often at the hands of government agencies such as Virginia's 
>Bureau of Vital Statistics and its registrar, Walter Plecker.
>
>Featured prominently in the documentary is Melungeon author and activist 
>Brent Kennedy, who retold Melungeon history as the prime example of a 
>multi-ethnic population who put aside their racial and cultural 
>differences, came together, and survived as one people. Kennedy's rallying 
>cry was "One People, All Colors."
>
>The Sunday evening showing, which this writer attended, drew sustained 
>applause. The documentary concludes on a sad note, with a notice that Brent 
>Kennedy suffered a debilitating stroke in Fall 2005. Nonetheless, Kennedy 
>was in a wheel chair in the center of the front row for that showing, when, 
>for the first time, he saw the finished production from start to finish.
>
>This showing was particularly poignant because of the sharp contrast 
>between the vigorous on-screen Kennedy, and the Kennedy in the audience,
>
>The documentary was produced by Julie Williams Dixon, a 1981 graduate of 
>the Department of Communications at Virginia Tech and videographed by 
>Warren Gentry.  Dixon is a principal in the Raleigh, NC-based script 
>writing and video production company Words and Pictures. Gentry is a 
>principal in the Raleigh, NC-based Warren Gentry and Associates video 
>production company.
>
>As members of this listserv well know, race is a deeply embedded aspect of 
>Virginia history and one that periodically obsesses our discussions.
>
>"Melungeon Voices" offers an optimistic message about race in Virginia. In 
>this writer's opinion it deserves the widest possible showing.
>
>Jim Glanville
>Retired Chemist
>201 Graves Avenue
>Blacksburg, VA 24060-5305
>
>*Melungeons are a mixed-ethnic people descended from Native Americans from 
>the Virginia/Carolina region as well as African-Americans, Europeans, and 
>Mediterranean/Middle Eastern people who intermarried in colonial times. 
>Traditional Melungeon centers in Virginia, are Lee, Scott, Tazewell, Wise, 
>and adjacent counties.
>
>Selected Bibliography
>
>Alther, Lisa. Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree. New York: Arcade, 
>2007.
>
>DeMarce, Virginia Easley. "Review Essay: The Melungeons." National 
>Genealogy Society Quarterly, 84(2): 134-149, 1996.
>
>Elder, Pat Spurlock. The Melungeons: Examining An Appalachian Legend. 
>Blountville, TN: Continuity Press, revised, expanded, updated manuscript 
>edition, 2004.
>
>Gallegos, Eloy J. The Melungeons: The Pioneers of the Interior Southeastern 
>United States, 1526-1997. Knoxville: Villagra Press, 1997
>
>Kennedy, N. Brent with Robyn Vaughan Kennedy. The Melungeons: the 
>resurrection of a proud people, an untold story of ethnic cleansing in 
>America. 2nd, rev., and corr. ed. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 
>1997.
>
>Reed, John Shelton. "Mixing in the Mountains." Southern Cultures, 3(4): 
>25-36,1997.
>
>Winkler, Wayne. Walking Toward the Sunset: the Melungeons of Appalachia. 
>Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005.

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