Stranger With a Camera

By Elizabeth Barret
Premiered: July 11, 2000

In the coal-mining heart of Appalachia's "poverty belt", where residents have felt alternately aided and assaulted by media exposure, the 1967 murder of filmmaker Hugh O'Connor still stirs strong community feelings. O'Connor was in the area during the War on Poverty gathering images for a film and was killed by landowner Hobart Ison. Barret turns the story of this tragic confrontation into an interrogation of the media itself and its relationship to public knowledge and private dignity, as well as a meditation on Appalachia's place in the American imagination.

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Transcript:

Elizabeth Barret, filmmaker: I've chosen to stay in one place and make media about that place over a long period of time. And, uh, and that you have a very different relationship to the communities you portray when that's the choice you've made. And so this film, it's evidence of that. It shows that there's consequences to all of our work in media. It shows that there's, um, that there's a relationship past just the moment you're doing an interview... Within me I encompassed an insider-outsider point of view. And so I wanted that to be reflected in the film. And I knew it was important for me to place myself then in the film asking these questions, and commenting on being a person who's been on one side of the camera, as someone from the region who's felt the effects of these images, and now as someone behind the camera creating media about this place... And so for me, it continued to be something that haunted me. That became more and more relevant the more I made films. And I had one foot in Hobart Ison's world, and one foot in Hugh O'Connor's world. And so it was — this was the next step for me, was to make this film.

Note: All companion materials for this film are in .pdf format, and require the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You may download Adobe Acrobat Reader free of charge.

LESSON PLANS

Lesson 1: Reporting a Story: A School Newspaper Activity
A collaborative exercise in which students create a class newspaper that documents individuals from diverse cultural groups in the school. In the process, students learn ways in which stories can be reported to retain an awareness and sensitivity towards their subjects and their respective cultures.

Lesson 2: A Video and Photographic Study of Community
Students use videotape or photograph a cultural group within the school or broader community and learn to tell a visual story in a manner that demonstrates an awareness and sensitivity towards individuals, their respective cultures, and their communities.

RESOURCES


Film Discussion Guide
This guide is designed to accompany the lesson plans developed for the P.O.V. program, Stranger with a Camera, by Elizabeth Barret.

Accessing Prior Knowledge
Accessing Prior Knowledge (through web site and book searches) is designed to accompany the lesson plans developed for the P.O.V. program, Stranger with a Camera, by Elizabeth Barret.

" The film emerges as a provocative moral inquiry but also as a vivid portrait of a place and time, informed by Ms. Barret's gentle, personal rumination. "
Julie Salamon, The New York Times

" ...A devastating story, often hauntingly filmed and an eloquent primer on just how, in the late 1960's, the media became intensely interested in the pain of life so prevalent in the coalfields of Appalachia...an effective documentary. It captures the powerful emotions of the time.... "
Bob Longino, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

" This insightful doc examines the 'complex relationship between social action and social embarrassment'... "
, Entertainment Weekly

PRESS RELEASE (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

PHOTOS
To view an image, click on a thumbnail below.

Please note: Photos are for press and private use only. All rights reserved. All uses of the photos must be credited as indicated below. For additional information on rights and clearance issues, contact povcomm@pov.org.

Credit: John Perkins
Caption: Filmmaker Elizabeth Barret

Credit: Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada
Caption: Hugh O'Connor

Credit: Courtesy of Appalshop
Caption: Triptych depicting Hugh O'Connor (far left), Elizabeth Barret (center), and Hobart Ison (far right)

Credit: Hans Luxemburger
Caption: Hassie Breeding Helton being interviewed

Credit: Courtesy of Appalshop
Caption: Mason Eldridge, witness to killing