Bluegrass Journey

Steamboatin' stories from those who lived them, river history, authentic footage and stills, along with music and narration by John Hartford.

Escape from everyday life in freedom and community and live utopias - for many organizers and artists, the secret of the music festivals that make culturally weak Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of people every summer. But instead of freedom, community and utopia, there was one thing above all in the festival summers of 2020 and 2021: silence.

In the early 80s, some bored young people in Hultsfred arrange a gig with the bands Ebba Grön and Dag Vag. It will be the starting point for what would become Sweden's biggest music festival.

Over the course of the six music festivals, friends Maxie and Summer will learn to accept the impending loss of their friend James from brain cancer through Marley, an up-and-coming musician whose own rise to the main stage will provide a positive anchor for them to move forward with their lives.

The Stanley sound is true old-time, mountain style bluegrass music. This film tells Ralph's story through interviews with Ralph, fellow musicians, and those who know Ralph best. Rank Stranger, White Dove, Pretty Polly, Man of Constant Sorrow, and over twenty other songs help tell the story. Ralph performs with Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless, Junior Brown, Larry Sparks, George Shuffler, Ricky Skaggs, and members of the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Capturing the sights, sounds, and magic of Carlton Haney’s 1971 Labor Day Festival in Camp Springs, North Carolina; a three-day outdoor festival—the first of its kind—featuring bluegrass veterans and future stars alike sharing the primitive wood and cinder block stage. More than just capturing one of the largest bluegrass festivals of that decade, this documentary is also an interesting mixture of live performances, interviews, impromptu jam sessions and crowd footage of live music set in a small town surrounded by the now long gone red clay and tobacco shacks of North Carolina.

Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.

A documentary covering the 2013 Gathering of the Juggalos in Cave-In-Rock, IL.

A documentary on the late American entertainer Dean Reed, who became a huge star in East Germany after settling there in 1973.

The intersecting stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress—connect to the music business in Nashville, Tennessee.

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.