Appalshop (United States)

Appalshop is a nonprofit media, arts, and education center based in Whitesburg, Kentucky, with a theater division office in Norton, Virginia.

The Appalachian Community Film Workshop began in October 1969 as an Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) project during the Johnson administration's War on Poverty to train Appalachian youth in film and television technology. The expectation was that the recruits would use their new skills to find employment outside Appalachia. Instead, as they made documentary films about local culture, the issues of youth, and social justice, the trainees dedicated themselves to their home community. With the end of OEO funding in 1974, they formed a nonprofit with the name Appalshop, Inc., to continue making films. These unsentimental films remain of interest as authentic expressions of community seen from the inside.

Appalshop expanded during the 1970s to include Roadside Theater, June Appal Recordings, educational materials, and even publishing. Later, Appalshop added WMMT community radio (1985), the Appalachian Media Institute for youth leadership development (1988), the Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival (1987), and other cultural and educational projects. Recent years have brought the Appalshop archive, an international exchange, and the Thousand Kites project, which addresses issues concerning prisons.

This has enabled the creation of a large body of work, in a wide range of media, which documents the life, celebrates the culture, and voices the concerns of people living in Appalachia and elsewhere in rural America. Through its various divisions, Appalshop presents stories that commercial news and cultural industries do not tell. These stories challenge the “hillbilly” stereotype, support grassroots efforts to achieve justice and equality, and celebrate cultural diversity as a positive social value.

The underlying philosophy is that rural and Appalachian people, along with underserved communities worldwide, must tell their own stories and solve their own problems. In Appalshop, documentary films, coal miners, fast-food workers, prisoners, truck drivers, community activists, high school students, teachers, musicians, and artists speak for a better way of life for their families, their communities, and their country. Appalshop amplifies these voices through a variety of public presentations and educational projects, including film, video, radio, Internet media, music, theater, and community and international exchanges. Vérité footage of labor strikes, community protests, work, community life, and performance material has created a remarkable archival record of the region.

Appalshop's location in the central Appalachian coalfields, its 40-year history, and its scope make it unique among American cultural institutions. The National Endowment for the Humanities has recognized Appalshop as one of the nation's most important community-based humanities centers. Jane Alexander, former chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, described Appalshop as “the jewel in the NEA's crown.” “Appalshop's [Page 61]work has been a cultural beacon, for the people of the Appalachian region, for independent filmmakers, for media arts leaders, and also for people who, like me, celebrate and study the role of independent media in a democratic society,” stated writer and cultural activist Pat Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American University (personal communication, February 27, 2010). Nationally recognized films produced by Appalshop include The Buffalo Creek Flood (the National Film Registry); Stranger With a Camera; Fast Food Women; Morristown, Strangers and Kin; and On Our Own Land.

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