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. _________________________________________________________________ http://newlivehotmail.com