THE EARLY FILMS OF WILLIAM FERRIS 1968-1975; DELTA BLUES, MISSISSIPPI

From Dust-to-Digital: a new DVD

FILMS INCLUDED:

Black Delta, Part I (1968)
Black Delta, Part II (1968)
Parchman Penitentiary (1968)
Give My Poor Heart Ease: Mississippi Delta Bluesmen (1975)
I Ain’t Lyin’: Folktales from Mississippi (1975)
Made in Mississippi: Black Folk Art and Crafts (1975)
Two Black Churches (1975)

To be released 2 November, 2018

Product Description

"In addition to being a groundbreaking documentarian of the American South, William Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and is the author of multiple books. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine named him among the top ten professors in the United States. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the roots of the blues. This DVD features seven films made by William Ferris between 1968 and 1975. FILMS INCLUDED: Black Delta, Part I (1968) (b/w) Black Delta, Part II (1968) (b/w) Parchman Penitentiary (1968) (b/w) Give My Poor Heart Ease: Mississippi Delta Bluesmen (1975) (color) I Ain't Lyin': Folktales from Mississippi (1975) (color) Made in Mississippi: Black Folk Art and Crafts (1975) (color) Two Black Churches (1975) (color) 'The combination of William Ferris and Dust-to-Digital is so important in preserving the cornerstone of our musical American history...' Lucinda Williams 'Bill Ferris is a profound historian. I am his biggest fan!!' Quincy Jones 'Going from farm to front porch across America's south in the 1960s, William Ferris recorded everything from praying pigs to haunting blues a political act, he says, at a time when black voices were being silenced.' Rebecca Bengal, The Guardian 'The 73-year-old UNC professor has spent six decades becoming Southern culture's chief documentarian. Equally at home on Mississippi state work farms or in college lecture halls, Ferris has broken some of America's biggest racial divides to collect tales of a sometimes-hidden history. It's a story he likes to share, too.' 

Tom Maxwell, IndyWeek March, 2015