Alabama's Black Belt Blues
Posted on October 20, 2020
51¸£Àû Assistant Professor Dr. Kern Jackson will be part of âAlabama Black Belt Blues,â a one-hour documentary about Alabamaâs blues music tradition, centered in its fertile Black Belt region. The film is produced by One State Films in partnership with Alabama Public Television.
âThis movie will share with us a peek into the past and the present of Alabama Black Belt Blues,â said Jackson, director of USAâs .
The film uses slave narratives, archival blues recordings and the recorded music of contemporary African American blues musicians to explore the role this music has played in the region from slavery onward. From cotton fields to church pews to prison spaces to juke joints both rural and urban, the film follows the refrain of the regionâs blues through the cultural landscapes of Alabama, yesterday and today.
âThis is an artistically and emotionally rich description of blues in the Black Belt that illuminated both the African American experience and the history and culture of Alabama,â Jackson said.
Directed by Alabama filmmaker Robert Clem, the documentary explores the stateâs African American blues tradition from the days of slavery through the 1930s and â40s to the present day. It also includes archival film of Black Belt Alabama from the 1920s into the early 2000s and still photographs that include a collection of photos taken in the 1950s by folklorist Fred Ramsey, some of which were included in his book âBeen Here and Goneâ but have never appeared in a film until now.
Jackson is one of many peopleâboth historians and musiciansâappearing in the film discussing the stateâs blues culture.
âCome and be drawn to the voices and stories of our Alabama neighbors,â Jackson said.
âAlabama Black Belt Bluesâ airs Friday, Oct. 23 at 8:30 p.m. and again Sunday, Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. on Alabama Public Television.
