Linefork is a documentary about legendary banjo player and retired miner Lee Sexton and his wife Opal.
Short on narration, it is an unusual documentary in that does not have an obvious mission to educate the viewer. Instead, it is a mesmerizing sensory experience that conveys the daily lives of the elderly Sextons through beautiful cinematography and, of course, music.
It begins with an opening shot of a train that is too long to fit in any city and we are transported to Eastern Kentucky. Then we see Opal puttering around the kitchen of her small, tidy home with a subtly amused look on her face that tells us we are welcome here. We watch the Sextons as they go about their daily lives: gardening, scheduling performances, and teaching banjo to young people.
This is Appalachia, a rural part of America with its own culture and musical traditions. Lee is one of the greats of this genre, having appeared on the Smithonian Folkway album and won accolades such as the Governor's Award in the Arts. We see him at one point reading his own entry in an encyclopedia of great musicians.
Linefork defies the trope of a conflict between working class Americans and the elite. The Sextons are both at once. And yet Linefork, unusually, never makes them a caricature of either. It looks neither down on or up to them, but instead at them with an observational approach giving you the view you might have if you went to stay with a friend's grandparents for a while. It is not an idealized vision. It shows the realities of growing older through doctor's appointments, ointments, and friends who are suffering from age.
If I have one criticism it is that there is one long shot of annoyed, tied up dog. I am glad the shot is there. It is wonderful. But it is shown without sufficient context and I worry that it would make a certain type of viewer think unjust things about the Sextons. (The context is available on line in the film's outtakes: The dogs are tied up because they have a history of biting filmmakers.)
In the rare instances when the fourth wall beaks and the Sextons are shown interacting with the filmmakers you see an established relationship of trust and friendship. It is clear that it is this relationship that makes the film possible and its establishment is perhaps the film's greatest accomplishment. When we see Lee teaching one of the producers, Vic Rawlings, how to play a song on the banjo we get the hint that music itself may have been this relationship's foundation.
Linefork has many themes but they are all implicit and not necessarily deliberate. For this reason, it is a movie that continues to cook for days after you've seen it. I hope that it gains wider release so that more people will be able to experience it, too.
Short on narration, it is an unusual documentary in that does not have an obvious mission to educate the viewer. Instead, it is a mesmerizing sensory experience that conveys the daily lives of the elderly Sextons through beautiful cinematography and, of course, music.
It begins with an opening shot of a train that is too long to fit in any city and we are transported to Eastern Kentucky. Then we see Opal puttering around the kitchen of her small, tidy home with a subtly amused look on her face that tells us we are welcome here. We watch the Sextons as they go about their daily lives: gardening, scheduling performances, and teaching banjo to young people.
This is Appalachia, a rural part of America with its own culture and musical traditions. Lee is one of the greats of this genre, having appeared on the Smithonian Folkway album and won accolades such as the Governor's Award in the Arts. We see him at one point reading his own entry in an encyclopedia of great musicians.
Linefork defies the trope of a conflict between working class Americans and the elite. The Sextons are both at once. And yet Linefork, unusually, never makes them a caricature of either. It looks neither down on or up to them, but instead at them with an observational approach giving you the view you might have if you went to stay with a friend's grandparents for a while. It is not an idealized vision. It shows the realities of growing older through doctor's appointments, ointments, and friends who are suffering from age.
If I have one criticism it is that there is one long shot of annoyed, tied up dog. I am glad the shot is there. It is wonderful. But it is shown without sufficient context and I worry that it would make a certain type of viewer think unjust things about the Sextons. (The context is available on line in the film's outtakes: The dogs are tied up because they have a history of biting filmmakers.)
In the rare instances when the fourth wall beaks and the Sextons are shown interacting with the filmmakers you see an established relationship of trust and friendship. It is clear that it is this relationship that makes the film possible and its establishment is perhaps the film's greatest accomplishment. When we see Lee teaching one of the producers, Vic Rawlings, how to play a song on the banjo we get the hint that music itself may have been this relationship's foundation.
Linefork has many themes but they are all implicit and not necessarily deliberate. For this reason, it is a movie that continues to cook for days after you've seen it. I hope that it gains wider release so that more people will be able to experience it, too.
