Duke's Center for Documentary Studies

At Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, I'm greeted by associate director Lynn McKnight, who's clearly done everything in her power to get word out about the evening's screening of Trimpin: the sound of invention.

Founded by Alex Harris, CDS is one of the few educational entities in the country with an abiding commitment to documentary work as it is practiced in the field.  Many documentarians whose work I've long admired - including photographers Wendy Ewald and Tom Rankin, and filmmaker Nancy Kalow - teach at the school; many more have taught or lectured there.  

The screening room is packed.  Extra chairs are brought out, Harlan tweaks the audio, and Lynn introduces me to the assembled.  It's a great audience - receptive and responsive to the film.  After five hours of driving with Jolene, I only wish my answers were half as intelligent as their questions. 

After the screening, I head over to Elmo's for a late-night dinner with my sister Frances and her husband Gaizka.  I haven't seen them in years, and it's a great reunion.

(CDS front porch: tools used for oral research)

A meager sampling of some of my favorite works by documentarians associated with CDS:

Denise Dixon 

"Self-Portrait Reaching for the Red Star Sky, 1977"

c by Wendy Ewald

"Candidate for baptism, fourth week in August, Perthshire, Mississippi, 1989"

photo c by Tom Rankin

"Deacon Fred Davis, Moon Lake, Coahoma County, Mississippi, 1990"

photo c by Tom Rankin

Recommended reading:

Secret Games: Collaborative Works with Children (1969 - 1999) 

by Wendy Ewald

Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta 

by Tom Rankin

The Last Harvest: Truck Farmers in the Deep South 

by Tom Rankin

Recommended viewing:

Sadobabies by Nancy Kalow (go to YouTube)

The Losers Club by Nancy Kalow (again, YouTube)

across the North Carolina wilderness

Back on the road again, headed east on I-40 to Raleigh-Durham, where my film, Trimpin: the sound of invention, will be shown at Duke's prestigious Center for Documentary Studies.

While Jolene recalculates, I take a detour along the lovely Blue Ridge Parkway to the Highlands Folk Art Center.  There's way too much to see here, from exquisite hand-crafted quilts and fine ceramics to a rough-hewn front gate:

At the folk art center, I luck into a retrospective of the work of Charles Counts, an extraordinary ceramicist/weaver/writer and teacher who lived and worked in Rising Fawn, GA.  

(untitled quilt, designed by Charles Counts, 1965)

(hooked rug designed by Charles Counts, ca. 1977-80)

(title page of a book written and illustrated by Charles Counts)

"Art is a disease and there is no cure." - Charles Counts

"You may get better, but you'll never get well." - Huey 'Piano' Smith

Back on I-40, I blow past Greensboro, home to Eugene Chadbourne (guitarist, banjoist, improvisor, and wild man; onetime frontman for NYC's proto-punk band Shockabilly; inventor of the electric rake).

(Dr. Chadbourne, in all his virtuosick cacaphony) 

With no time to spare, I exit at Durham, and promptly get lost in the woods of the Duke campus.  Via cellphone, Lynn McKnight patiently guides me to Pettigrew Street and the Center for Documentary Studies, where a crowd is already gathering for the evening screening of Trimpin: the sound of invention.

Like the end of a good Western

So I am back in NYC (aka the Wild Wild East.) The trip is over but like all good Westerns, there were good guys, bad guys, and beautiful women. Lessons learned and guns drawn. As a stranger once said "sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes well the bar eats you."


Below are morals from the road:

Mark a network sound recordists that I met in Durham warned me about love.
Don't be like all my cameramen friends, who falls in love with a woman's face and then realize later that her heart was bad.

Bob a law professor in Delaware/underwater shipwrecked explorer, who sat next to me on a plane to Alexandria, boosted about lust.
At 5am every woman on Bourbon St is beautiful, the bayou's morning light does special things.

Brenda who sells chemical insulation for underground wiring enjoyed flaunting her sexuality while chatting with me on the way to Atlanta.
I am a middle aged woman who still wears a short skirt and knee high boots, my husband loves to hear stories of men picking me up.

In the 9th ward Steve and Jim fished for Thanksgiving gumbo while sharing the most important life saving information of the swamp lands.
I will always take my chances with the gators. Gators will bite your hand off, a poisonous water snake will kill you in 20 mins.

Nick a forensic specialist based in North Carolina confided in me during my plane ride back to NY.
If you are planning to deal drugs, only sell prescription. It is very hard to convict you of trafficking.



Thank you to Allen Bell and everyone at the Southern Arts council that made this trip a reality. Thank you to everyone who gave me a meal, and a smile, and a story. These are things that will be hard to forget.

Buy FLYING ON ONE ENGINE on DVD:
http://bit.ly/4u4GiO

I took 1,362 photos during this trip, here are a couple:
http://bit.ly/4FLH01

Also tour posters are still available if you make a contribution to Dicksheet's charity: Contact me fooefilm (at) gmail (dot) com.

You can read all my previous posts below:
Flying On One Engine Tour Begins on Tuesday (November 04, 2009)Bowling Green (November 12, 2009)
Nashville (November 13, 2009)
Louisiana (November 15, 2009)
Heart of Dixie (November 18, 2009)
White Noise (November 20, 2009)