No one could spin a yarn to make a sale like Ray Lum. Twenty years after their initial meeting, Bill Ferris returned home to Mississippi in the early ‘70s with a camera. The result reveals a look back at the colorful rhythms of Ray’s life—at home, at the auction, joking with strangers outside country stores— and provides a glimpse at Southern manhood, friendship and loss. Now nearly Ray’s age when they first filmed, Ferris has become a Grammy Award winning documentarian and renowned folklorist. Using never before seen 16mm footage and new animations, OKAY, MR. RAY is a short documentary film about how even the tallest tales help us keep the memory alive of the ones we love.
Himself
Himself
Himself
Himself
In a remote area of northern Spain, the wind has a name: Tramuntana. Tramuntana takes what it wants—clothes, trees, boats, and the people of the landscape who live with the endless threat of being carried away by its force. This film is a lyrical portrait of this furious wind, woven from the stories passed down by local villagers.
"Man in Red Bandana" is about Welles Remy Crowther, an extraordinary 9/11 hero. However, how his heroics became known is even more remarkable. Eight months after the disaster, his parents learned about how their son spent his last hour due to an ordinary object ... a red bandana. This revelation dramatically shifts their perspective on their loss. After hearing his remarkable story and how it unfolds, viewers will see how the actions of one man have touched 1,000s. This inspirational segment of the film depicts the unique, diverse and folklore ways that Welles is honored throughout the United States including in art, sports and song. Even President Barack Obama pays homage to this young man in the film. Our uplifting ending culminates in the revelation of a secret about Welles that can only be described as "perfect".
In May of 2024, Sludgelung went on a short tour throughout the southeast United States. This was the first time in over twenty years that a band from Starkville Mississippi has been on tour. After a last-minute decision, the tour was set and organized in just a couple of weeks. With no experience, the band set out to tour through six cities across four states in under a week. Knowing the trials and tribulations, the band sought to prove that it could be done.
“Beneath the Concrete, The Forest” is a short experimental documentary that takes us inside an ongoing struggle inside the city of Atlanta, GA between two sides to determine the future of Weelaunee, the biggest contiguous urban forest in the country.
Controversy erupts when an unassuming young man floods the American wine market with fake vintages valued in the millions, bamboozling the wine world elite, in this humorous and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con on the eve of the 2008 stock market crash.
Since ancient times, the Green Man has been one of the most mysterious and menacing of mythical characters. He also has a familiar face as Robin Hood , Jack in the Green and on numerous pub signs. Across the arts from comic strips to classical opera, the Green Man is now making a comeback. Where is he taking us? Writer Sir Kingsley Amis , film director John Boorman , composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle and other leading artists offer their interpretations of the mystery in this Omnibus documentary film from 16th November, 1990.
In a remote mountainous village elderly people no longer deemed productive are stoned to death.
For the first time, a documentary dismantles the mechanisms of this great world trade to economic issues, major political and food, and reveals the daily life of those who are the main players: traders themselves, the men and women who buy , transport, sell merchandise and speculate on changes in their prices. African cotton plantations of the Hong Kong import companies, Brazilian soybean fields in the hall of the Chicago Board of Trade markets, through commercial ports of Santos and Le Havre.
Behind the glitz and glamour of rock 'n' roll royalty is the haunting tale of Elvis Presley. Many question his moral fiber and notorious violent temper. Devilish charm dressed in angelic white had friends and fans fooled for too long.
Walker takes us on a personal journey into a world of myth and imagination that he learned from his grandmother. He travels from the Moors of Devon and the Highlands of Scotland to the brooding Celtic landscapes of Ireland and the intimate hills of Cape Breton, in his search of this potent “otherworld” of the imagination.
Household effects and farm implements under the hammer. Here is the auctioneer's cajoling patter, the jostling crowd, pungent observations from one or two old-timers and, over all, the kindly curiosity of folks who gather to see the end of a neighbour's life on the farm.
Oluf Raillkattli is one of Norways most beloved humor characters. How's it been? How did the stories come to life? What's the story behind the 100-year phenomenon Oluf? These are some of the questions that's raised when Arthur Arntzen and his longtime partner in crime Tore Skoglund meet up at Folkets Hus in Narvik. The occasion is Arthurs 70th birthday and a look back at 50 years of memorable Oluf moments on stage and TV.
“Olive” is a short documentary that follows Olive Hagemeier, an energetic woman, on her daily routine of salvaging, repackaging and redistributing food, and occasional other types of “waste”, across Atlanta, GA. Presented in a quiet observational style, this film is both a character study of a committed and enigmatic volunteer, as well as an ethnographic work that places the audience in the heart of a decentralized, volunteer-run mutual aid network in a “post-COVID” American city.
This exhaustive documentary attempts to tell the history of Bram Stoker's influential novel Dracula, explaining both the historical antecedents to the story, as well as offering look at Stoker's life in order to help illuminate this enduring horror tale, and exposing some of the myths surrounding vampires that have long been accepted as fact.
In January of 2025, Sludgelung went on a short tour throughout the midwestern United States. This was the band’s second tour, and easily the most hazardous one. While on the road, the tour was caught in the middle of two historic winter storms, but it wasn’t a complete disaster because this run saw some of the band’s most iconic performances. Even though the band dealt with record snowfall and historic low temperatures, they were able to make the most out of it.
In the frigid waters off of Russia’s Bering Strait, Inuit and Chukchi hunters today still seek out the giant sea mammals that have provided their people with food since time immemorial. It is known, that the whale hunting today is controversial and subject to international criticism and regulations. But the Inuit and Chukchi hunt is permitted by international law because of the whaling is the foundation of their culture and their life. The contemporary story of elders Aleksandr and Aleksei blends seamlessly with that of “the woman who gave birth to a whale” and other ancient myths, told here in vivid animation, in this ongoing struggle for survival and preservation of a traditional lifestyle in one of the most remote places on earth.
Emmett Till was brutally killed in the summer of 1955. At his funeral, his mother forced the world to reckon with the brutality of American racism. This short documentary was commissioned by "Time" magazine for their series "100 Photos" about the most influential photographs of all time.
The Matica slovenská (a mostly government-sponsored cultural, academic, and archival institution) employed Karol Plicka (1894-1987) as its ethnographer, who was able to make documentary shorts from about 1926. He obtained funding from the President’s Office in 1928 to produce an hour-long documentary about village life, Through Mountains and Valleys (Po horách, po dolách). It was awarded a Gold Medal at the International Exposition of Photographic Art in Florence and received an Honorable Mention at the International Venice Film Festival in 1932.