Harry Dean Stanton: Crossing Mulholland

Harry Dean Stanton: Crossing Mulholland 2011

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Fellow actors and musicians, film critics, and his Kentucky relatives tell the story of noted character actor Harry Dean Stanton. Kris Kristofferson, Billy Bob Thornton, critic Leonard Maltin are among those interviewed in this profile.

2011

Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story

Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story 1996

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Chronicles the 50-year career of singer/songwriter Jean Ritchie, from Viper, Kentucky to the New York stage. Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and her family and friends in Eastern Kentucky are among those interviewed. A 1996 KET production.

1996

Becoming bell hooks

Becoming bell hooks 2024

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Explore the life and legacy of Kentucky-born author bell hooks, who wrote nearly 40 books and whose work at the intersection of race, class and gender serves as a lasting contribution to the feminist movement. Learn how bell’s childhood in Hopkinsville and her connection to Kentucky’s “hillbilly culture” informed her views and her belief that feminism is for everybody. Becoming bell hooks, a one-hour documentary, features selections read by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer and interviews with feminist activist Gloria Steinem, Kentucky writers Crystal Wilkinson and Silas House, bell’s younger sister Gwenda Motley and many others.

2024

Angels on Horseback: Midwives in the Mountains

Angels on Horseback: Midwives in the Mountains 2021

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Explore the life of Mary Breckinridge and her efforts founding the Frontier Nursing Service, whose nurse-midwives traveled by horseback to provide healthcare to those living in a remote, mountainous region of Kentucky.

2021

Merle Travis: Guitar Man

Merle Travis: Guitar Man 2016

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Merle Travis took the experiences of his early years growing up in Muhlenberg County, Ky., to the national stage and rode the rising tide of country music’s popularity in the years following World War II. His considerable talents as a singer, songwriter, bandleader, and guitar-picking pioneer still reverberate in the heartbeat of American music today, more than three decades after his passing.

2016